Enterprise Act 2002
|
|
| Long title | An Act to establish and provide for the functions of the Office of Fair Trading, the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Competition Service; to make provision about mergers and market structures and conduct; to amend the constitution and functions of the Competition Commission; to create an offence for those entering into certain anti-competitive agreements; to provide for the disqualification of directors of companies engaging in certain anti-competitive practices; to make other provision about competition law; to amend the law relating to the protection of the collective interests of consumers; to make further provision about the disclosure of information obtained under competition and consumer legislation; to amend the Insolvency Act 1986 and make other provision about insolvency; and for connected purposes. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2002 c.40 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales, Scotland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 7 November 2002 |
| Other legislation | |
| Relates to | Competition Act 1998 |
|
Status: Current legislation
|
|
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Enterprise Act 2002 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk | |
The Enterprise Act 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made major changes to UK competition law with respect to mergers and also changed the law governing insolvency bankruptcy.
The Act had five major competition policy objectives; Make all competition decisions through independent bodies, root out forms of anti-competitive behaviour, create a strong deterrent effect, to redress injured parties in distortions of competition and raise the profile of competition policy in the UK.
The act made the Office of Fair Trading formally independent from government, and gave it additional powers. It is now possible for searches to be carried out under warrant from this act of business premises involved with potentially prohibitable mergers. The act also established the Commission Appeals Tribunal (CAT) for companies to appeal against decisions by the Competition Commission. The role of the Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT) was also abolished and his powers given to the OFT, this was seen as an attempt to depersonalize the competition investigation process. The Minister of Trade and Industry in the past played a large role in competition policy, having final say over whether a particular merger was in the public interest. Under the new Act his role was significantly diminished in order to de-politicize competition regulation which had been accused of being inconsistent in the past. He now only has powers to intervene if the proposed merger will affect the media to the detriment of the public, national security or if one of the firms is a government contractor.
On the deterrence side of the act, jail terms of a maximum of five years for directors was introduced in order to increase deterrence for forming cartels. The competition commission also had its scope widened to cover investigations of whole industries, not just specific firm, for example the supermarket industry.
The Enterprise Act made substantial amendments to the administration procedures for failing companies. The purpose was to enhance the policy of creating a "rescue culture", so that insolvent companies so far as possible should be saved, before their assets are stripped and distributed to creditors.
...
Wikipedia