Resolving the future of the UK’s competition regime

As the UK reaches the end of the transition period, the future of the UK’s competition regime and particularly the role of state aid, remains unclear. The CBI set out the concerns of members and the key principles needed to resolve these issues to the HMT-BEIS Penrose Review.

Through our engagement with various members we identified three areas of concern to businesses:

1. COVID-19 and the end of transition present challenges to the future of competition policy

Clarity on the final agreements of the Brexit deal is needed to help businesses prepare. A recent CBI survey revealed that business preparations for 31 December have stalled or gone into reverse since January, as firms respond to the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 compounds existing challenges and brings additional risks such as increased market concentration in industries where the pre-pandemic trend indicated greater market power. Theory suggests that in the event of a downturn increased concentration could occur du