§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many alleged breaches of the Competition Act 1998 have been reported to the Office of Fair Trading; how many investigations have been conducted into such breaches; and what the outcome was in each case, indicating the level of fines imposed. [748]
44W
§ Miss Melanie Johnson[holding answer 25 June 2001]: Between the coming into force of the main provisions of the Competition Act 1998 on 1 March 2000 and the end of May 2001, the Office of Fair Trading has received over 5,000 complaints alleging a breach of the Competition Act 1998, or the complex monopoly provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1973. These complaints have resulted in 2,065 preliminary inquiries being opened to consider the allegations. Of these, 68 resulted in investigations of which 34 investigations are on-going.
The Office of Fair Trading will conduct an investigation when the Director General of Fair Trading is satisfied that he has reasonable grounds to believe that an infringement of the prohibitions contained in the Act has taken place.
The Director General of Fair Trading has issued one infringement decision and one non-infringement decision resulting from the investigations. He imposed a fine of £3.2 million on Napp Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd. Napp have appealed his decision.