I want to thank all of those with whom I have worked, and
the many friends that I have made, for their kindness and
support over the last two years. The CMA is an
extremely hard-working institution, strongly committed to
the public good.
On taking the role, I was asked by the Government to map
out a route to a new type of competition authority, one
better equipped to understand and respond to what most
concerns ordinary consumers: penalties for loyal customers,
price discrimination against vulnerable consumers, the
difficulties faced by millions in getting good deals
online, among them.
I was also asked to suggest ways in which the CMA could
become more agile, less legally encumbered, and also with
closer international ties, reflecting both the increasingly
global and often digital nature of consumer detriment, and
the CMA’s enhanced post-Brexit role.
We’ve all, particularly the most senior executive team and
the Board, worked hard at the CMA to do that.
The CMA submitted proposals for wide-ranging legislative
changes to the government last year.
It has taken forward important work to protect consumers,
and it has imposed tougher penalties on those who break
competition law.
And in our response to the coronavirus outbreak, we’ve
reoriented the organisation to listen and act on consumer
concerns more quickly and effectively. In responding,
the CMA has shown a remarkable and unprecedented capacity
to develop an emergency role.
I am delighted to have played some part in these
achievements.
The Government asked me to take this work forward at great
pace. I have done so. I now want to make the case more
forcefully for legislative and other reform – in Parliament
and beyond – than is possible within the inherent limits of
my position as CMA Chairman.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
will now commence the process for recruiting a new Chair of
the CMA.
