COMPLIANCE WITH UK AND EU COMPETITION RULES
It is the policy of Oasis to comply with competition law at all times. Competition law prohibits agreements or understandings between businesses that have as their aim or effect the restriction or prevention of competition to a material degree.
Please see our full policy here.
Competition law seeks to preserve free and fair competition by, for example, prohibiting conduct which raises prices or limits the extent to which goods or services are produced or provided, or conduct which leads to the acquisition of market power which could have such consequences.
The area of competition law of most relevance to Oasis and its members is the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements. The specific provisions of UK and EU competition law are set out in the Appendix to these guidelines. The structure of competition law in the UK under the Competition Act 1998 broadly mirrors that applicable in the EU. One particular difference, however, is that EU law applies where an agreement has an "effect on trade between Member States", whereas UK law applies when an agreement has an effect on "trade within the UK". Further, UK law provides that EU competition law principles (including case law and European Commission decisions) should be followed when considering issues under UK law.
In one important respect, UK law is different to EU law, namely in making it a criminal offence for an individual knowingly to engage in cartel activity. Cartel activity is defined as:
- Price fixing;
- limiting the production or provision of goods or services;
- Customer sharing; and
- Bid rigging.