CMA decision published: anti-competitive arrangements lead to fines of £1.71m issued to suppliers of ‘cleanroom’ laundry services

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision was published about Micronclean Limited and Berendsen Cleanroom Services Limited who were found to have allocated territories and customers plus both companies had agreed not to compete with each other’s relevant allocations.

This is a very serious breach of competition laws – the market is essentially rigged in their favour by sharing the market and agreeing not to compete. This can lead to inflated prices, a lack of innovation and little choice for consumers in the market. This behaviour favours the companies financially, and not the consumer; totally against the principles of fair competition.
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A little about competition law…

Competition law allows for fair competition to be maintained between companies and prevents companies taking part in anti-competitive behaviour.

The UK is governed by UK and EU competition laws, and if it’s found that a company has engaged in anti-competitive behaviour, there can be serious consequences. The two common ways in which competition law can be breached is: engaging in anti-competitive agreements; abuse of a dominant market position.

Both can lead to fines for offending companies.
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