Construction Recruitment Forum: collective boycott and price-fixing
| Case Outcome | CA98 - infringement Chapter I |
| Decision Date | 30 September 2009 |
| Date | 30 September 2009 |
| Subject Matter | CA98 and civil cartels |
| Court | Competition and Markets Authority (EW) |
Decision of the Office of Fair Trading
Construction Recruitment Forum
Case CE/7510-06
29 September 2009
Confidential information in the original version of this Decision has been
redacted from the published version on the public register. Redacted
confidential information in the text of the published version of the
Decision is denoted by […][C] or for example, [5-10][C].
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION 7
A Summary of the infringement and the OFT's action 7
B The Parties 8
2 THE FACTS 10
A The Parties 10
B Attribution of liability 10
Relevant case law on attribution of liability 10
OFT's approach to assessing liability 12
A Warwick Associates Limited 13
Beresford Blake Thomas Limited and Hill McGlynn &
Associates Limited 15
CDI AndersElite Limited 25
Eden Brown Limited 29
Fusion People Limited 30
Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited 31
Henry Recruitment Limited 35
C Industry structure and the conditions of competition at or around
the time of the Margin Protection Initiative 36
Introduction 36
The Construction Industry in the UK 36
Recruitment Agency services supplied to the Construction
Industry 40
Managed Service Providers (Neutral Vendors & Master
Vendors) 47
D The OFT’s investigation 51
3 LEGAL ASSESSMENT 55
A Legal background 55
Introduction - the Chapter I prohibition 55
Application of section 60 of the Act – consistency with
European Community law 55
Application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty - effect on
interstate trade 56
Relevant case law in relation to undertakings 57
Relevant case law in relation to agreements and concerted
practices 58
Single infringement where acts are in pursuit of common
objectives 72
Prevention, restriction or distortion of competition 75
Effect on trade within the UK 88
Appreciability 88
Burden and standard of proof 89
4 EVIDENCE RELIED ON BY THE OFT IN RELATION TO THE
INDIVIDUAL INFRINGEMENT 98
A Introduction – the Margin Protection Initiative 98
B Background to the Margin Protection Initiative 99
The Neutral Vendor Agreements signed by Parc with Taylor
Woodrow and Vinci 99
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