{"id":629,"date":"2017-11-03T13:56:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=629"},"modified":"2017-11-03T13:56:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:56:56","slug":"uk-showmens-guild-propose-rule-changes-comply-with-competition-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/uk-showmens-guild-propose-rule-changes-comply-with-competition-law","title":{"rendered":"Unfair funfairs update: U.K.’s largest fair association, the Showmen’s Guild, propose rule changes to comply with competition law"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0competition laws.
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History of the case<\/h2>\n

The CMA began investigations back in 2015<\/a> 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”.<\/p>\n

The authority received complaints from both members and non-members.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

If all members of the Guild were protected from competition then the showmen could keep their prices high and use the same old attractions<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

Allegations founded and changes proposed<\/h3>\n

On 21st<\/sup> 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. <\/p>\n

As a result, the Guild offered to make certain changes to its rules as follows:<\/p>\n

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