Competition Commission

The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It was tasked with ensuring healthy competition between companies in the UK for the ultimate benefit of consumers and the economy.

Competition Commission
Non-departmental public body overview
Formed1 April 1999 (1999-04-01)
Preceding Non-departmental public body
Dissolved1 April 2014
Superseding agency

The Competition Commission replaced the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on 1 April 1999. It was created by the Competition Act 1998, although the majority of its powers were governed by the Enterprise Act 2002.

The Enterprise Act 2002 gave the Competition Commission wider powers and greater independence than the MMC had previously, so that it could make decisions on inquiries rather than giving recommendations to Government, and was also responsible for taking appropriate actions and measures (known as remedies) following inquiries which had identified competition problems.

The Government was still able to intervene on mergers that involve a specified public interest criterion such as media plurality, national security and financial stability.[1]

On 1 April 2014 the Competition Commission was replaced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which also took over several responsibilities of the Office of Fair Trading.[2]