The new "Cracking Down on Cartels" campaign is targeting businesses which agree to not compete with each other in order to keep prices high, thereby cheating their customers. The purpose of this is to ensure there is healthy competition between businesses and that customers are treated fairly when it comes to pricing.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is running this campaign, hope that the reward of up to £100,000 and the promise of anonymity will encourage whistleblowers to step forward and report any illegal activity that they have witnessed.

Research undertaken by the CMA  shows that less than a quarter of businesses feel that they know competition law well. Given that businesses who are found to be guilty of being part of such cartels can be fined up to 10 per cent of their annual turnover and the individuals involved can face up to five years' imprisonment as well as a 10-year disqualification from director roles, it is important that businesses get to grips with competition law to avoid such penalties.

Whether the rewards offered will in fact encourage whistleblowers to come forward remains to be seen. However given that s18 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 removed the good faith requirement from the definition of a qualifying disclosure, it will be interesting to see whether this, coupled with the reward, will lead to an increase in dubious whistleblowing reports.

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