CONCEPTUAL AND APPLIED PROBLEMS WITH THE UK COMPETITION FILTER

Sean Lyons and Francis O'Toole

Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 2006, vol. 2, issue 4, 683-696

Abstract: Under the UK system of regulatory impact assessment, proposed legislation is subject to a negative clearance test to identify measures that risk significant harm to competition. Known as the “competition filter,” the test attempts to exempt low-risk measures from detailed scrutiny, that is, a competition assessment. This article describes how the competition filter suffers from a number of significant conceptual problems. In addition, this article demonstrates that the competition filter would allow important classes of potentially damaging regulations that have previously attracted criticism from the Office of Fair Trading. Finally, some improvements to the competition filter are proposed.

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:2:y:2006:i:4:p:683-696.

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Journal of Competition Law and Economics is currently edited by Nicholas Economides, Amelia Fletcher, Michal Gal, Damien Geradin, Ioannis Lianos and Tommaso Valletti

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