UK & Others Join Against Shipping Supply Price Hikes

The UK competition watchdog is teaming up with its counterparts in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in a drive to detect and investigate collusion between suppliers or shipping groups to hike prices, reported The Guardian. 

The Competition and Markets Authority said it was linking up with its fellow agencies in other “five eyes” nations after receiving “multiple complaints” from businesses about supply chains, where, for example, fees for shipping have soared by up to 10 times compared with pre-pandemic levels in the past two years. The CMA said that despite the complaints it was yet to find evidence of potential breaches of the law.

A new working group made up of the US Department of Justice, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau and the New Zealand Commerce Commission is planning to “meet regularly to develop and share intelligence to detect and investigate suspected anti-competitive behaviour and collusion”.

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