CMA has published the report on levels of understanding and awareness of competition law of the private sector businesses through the 2021 competition law survey conducted in representative sample of 1,200 UK private sector businesses by IFF.
According to the report, results from this research present a similar picture to 2018 since %24 of business are familiar with competition law and only %6 of them have a good understanding of non-compliance penalties or sanctions. Likewise, only %18 of businesses is aware that the CMA is the body with current responsibility for enforcing competition law and those who are aware show higher awareness of sanctions for non-compliance and greater knowledge of anti-competitive behaviors.
Another finding of the report is the effect of COVID-19. %60 of the businesses agrees that it’s harder to compete with larger companies providing the same products or services than it was five years ago and %44 of them mentions that it is not as easy as five years ago to enter new areas of businesses.
While the use of third-party online platforms is low, over half (55%) of businesses that currently use them are dependent on them and only 37% of businesses that have ever used them agree they get a fair deal when selling via these platforms. The ones who believe that they do not get a fair deal from online platforms are more likely to think competition in their sector has become more unfair in the last 5 year which changes the perspective of competition law in their eyes.
Overall, it is said that the awareness of competition law remains low in 2021 with just under a quarter (24%) claiming to know the law well (very or fairly), and this proportion is consistent with 2018 (23%) and 2015 (23%). There is also a drop seen in the awareness of anti-competitive behaviors since businesses score a mean average of 3.5 correct answers in 2021, compared with 3.9 in 2018.
(CMA- 14.07.2021)
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