Unfair funfairs update: U.K.’s largest fair association, the Showmen’s Guild, propose rule changes to comply with competition law
First published by Admin on November 03, 2017 in the following categories: Latest and tagged with cma
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) introduced some rules for the Showmen’s Guild to help tackle prohibited activities and improve competition for travelling fairs.
The Guild is the largest existing association of fairs, consisting of 90% of all funfairs and representing over 5,000 showmen members in the U.K.
However, the Guild enforces rules that can arguably make it difficult for non-guild members to set up their own fairs to compete with Guild members; so much so that it can impede national and EU competition laws.
History of the case
The CMA began investigations back in 2015 when they suspected the Guild of enforcing certain rules to “protect existing Guild showmen from competition and reduce the potential for new attractions to join fairs”.
The authority received complaints from both members and non-members.
For example, the guild doesn’t allow showmen to compete for grounds or positions. The U.K competition watchdog recognises the importance of competition, even within the fairground sector, to ensure customers pay reasonable prices and have more choice of fairs and access to improved rides and attractions.
If all members of the Guild were protected from competition then the showmen could keep their prices high and use the same old attractions as fair-goers would have little alternative. Its rules also included boycotting entire fairs when local authorities try to intervene. This happened at the Hoppings Fair in Newcastle 2013 when the entire fair was cancelled after a disagreement between local authorities and the Showmen’s Guild over rent and pitch terms.
Allegations founded and changes proposed
On 21st December 2016, the CMA published a press release to cement allegations that the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain were indeed enforcing restrictive rules on their members that constituted as breaches of EU and U.K. competition laws.
As a result, the Guild offered to make certain changes to its rules as follows:
- Opening access to Guild-run fairs for non-member showmen
- Enabling access to Guild-run fairs for the showmen (both members and non-members) who are best placed to provide an attractive service to fairgoers
- Allowing landowners (often local authorities) to change or improve a fair by replacing poorly performing fair organisers and amusement operators with better ones, improving the fair overall
- Reducing restrictions on rival fairs opening close to Guild fairs
- Making the rules of the Guild more transparent by publishing them online
- Making conditions for membership of the Guild expressly based on objective criteria
If the Showmen’s Guild do in fact implement and commit to these rules, the CMA may bring an end to their lengthy investigations so long as the changes satisfy their requirements.
CMA Senior Director of Antitrust, Ann Pope, said
“We believe that the current restrictions hinder change and innovation in funfairs.”
Pope welcomes the Guild’s proposed commitments and believes that:
“…the new rules will enable more competition in travelling fairs potentially giving the millions of fairgoers who attend them every year access to new rides and to different fairs in their local area.”
The CMA will now engage in consultations and accept any comments from those who are likely to be affected by the changes to see if the Guild’s new rules will meet competition laws.