East Midlands Airport avoids multi-million-pound price-fix fine
East Midlands Airport has avoided a £12.5 million pound fine for price-fixing after agreeing to fully co-operate with investigators.
In its first competition investigation, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) found East Midlands International Airport Ltd (EMIA) and now-defunct Prestige Parking Ltd broke competition law by agreeing to fix prices of car parking services at the airport.
The CAA found the two companies agreed that Prestige should not sell its car parking services at the airport at below a minimum price, which was linked to the price of EMIA’s own car parking services.
EMIA imposed this requirement as a condition of allowing Prestige to access facilities at the airport for over five years, from October 2007, at the latest, and September 2012.
Without this access, Prestige would not have been able to provide car parking services to its customers on the airport site.
The CAA also found that the companies exchanged information about their prices and that EMIA actively monitored Prestige’s prices.
The CAA said EMIA and its owner Manchester Airports Group Plc (MAG), avoided a fine of almost £12.5 million by proactively disclosing details of the agreement under the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) leniency programme before the CAA investigation began.
Prestige, which is now no longer trading, also admitted having broken competition law and co-operated fully.
Following the investigation, MAG has agreed to set up a programme to ensure ongoing compliance with competition law within its business and among staff.
It has also agreed to review existing concession contracts that EMIA has entered into, to ensure that they do not break the law on anti-competitive agreements.
CAA director of markets and consumers Richard Moriarty said: "Competition at airports is crucial to ensure that consumers benefit from choice and value for the whole passenger journey, including for services such as car parking at the airport.
"The fact that an airport operator owns land at the airport on which an independent business operates, does not mean that the airport can dictate the price of services sold by that independent business.
"This is the CAA’s first competition investigation and we found that both parties independently identified that their agreement might harm competition but failed to act on it.
"It is vital that airports and providers of services at airports understand and comply with competition law.
"This case should serve as a clear sign that we are prepared to take action to protect consumers wherever necessary and companies should be well aware that they could face a significant fine if they break competition law."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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