About us

We work to promote competition for the benefit of consumers, both within and outside the UK. Our aim is to make markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.

From 1 April 2014 we took over many of the functions of the Competition Commission (CC) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Who we are

The CMA is an independent non-ministerial department. We employ around 700 people, who work mainly at our office in Victoria House, London. We have representatives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Responsibilities

We are responsible for:

  • investigating mergers which could restrict competition
  • conducting market studies and investigations in markets where there may be competition and consumer problems
  • investigating where there may be breaches of UK or EU prohibitions against anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominant positions
  • bringing criminal proceedings against individuals who commit the cartel offence
  • enforcing consumer protection legislation to tackle practices and market conditions that make it difficult for consumers to exercise choice
  • co-operating with sector regulators and encouraging them to use their competition powers
  • considering regulatory references and appeals

Our responsibilities are supported by a range of powers which are based on legislation and explained in Towards the CMA.

Our goals

Our 5 strategic goals are:

  • delivering effective enforcement – to deter wrongdoing, protect consumers and educate businesses
  • extending competition frontiers – by using the markets regime to improve the way competition works, in particular within the regulated sectors
  • refocusing consumer protection – working with its partners to promote compliance and understanding of the law, and empowering consumers to make informed choices
  • achieving professional excellence – by managing every case efficiently, transparently and fairly, and ensuring all legal, economic and financial analysis is conducted to the highest international standards
  • developing integrated performance – through ensuring that all staff are brought together from different professional backgrounds to form effective multi-disciplinary teams and provide a trusted competition adviser across government

Our Annual Plan 2017 to 2018 has more detail on our prioritisation, resources and impact.

Who we work with

We work in partnership with a range of organisations in the UK and internationally. In the UK these include:

The UK Competition Network (UKCN) is a forum of the CMA and all the UK regulators that have a specific role to support and enable competition within their sectors. The network aims to encourage stronger competition for the benefit of consumers and to prevent anti-competitive behaviour in the regulated industries.

Internationally the CMA works to promote enforcement co-operation and the convergence of rules and standards. We work with:

For more information about our international work, please contact international@cma.gsi.gov.uk.

Notify us of issues

We welcome information about practices in the marketplace, but we can’t respond in detail to individual complaints. We won’t normally enter into correspondence about our decisions on whether to give detailed consideration to the complaints we receive.

Please see our guidance on how the CMA handles information and complaints it receives about businesses for more information.

Please use the notification form to let us know about anti-competitive practices, a market not working well, unfair terms in a contract or any issues related to poor competition.

Corporate information

Access our information

Jobs and contracts

Read about the types of information we routinely publish in our Publication scheme. Find out about our commitment to Welsh language scheme. Our Personal information charter explains how we treat your personal information.

Contents