Ofcom’s record as a competition authority: an assessment of decisions in telecoms

ABSTRACT

The instrument of concurrency, whereby UK regulatory authorities share and often, in practice, lead in the application of competition policy, is an important feature of the UK competition law regime. Several studies examined its pros and cons from a theoretical perspective. This is the first article to take a different approach and critically assesses Ofcom’s application of its concurrent competition law powers to the telecoms sector. This review identifies a number of shortfalls and provides several recommendations on how Ofcom could improve its record in applying its competition law powers to the telecoms sector to benefit consumers. This raises some serious questions as to whether concurrency improves the application of competition law.