Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013


The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, also known as ERRA, is a major Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed at reforming the regulatory environment faced by small and medium-sized business. It establishes a UK Green Investment Bank, reformed several aspects of employment law, cut regulation and address a miscellany of other regulatory issues. The Act also strengthens the regulatory settlement on mergers and anti-competitive behaviour. In doing so, part 3 of the Act established a new combined Competition and Markets Authority, which took over the functions of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission. It received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013.

Competition provisions

The major feature of the Act was the merger of the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission to form a single Competition and Markets Authority responsible for both "Phase 1" and "Phase 2" investigations, allowing greater synergy between the two. The ERRA also strengthened the criminal penalties for cartel behaviour by removing the requirement that such behaviour be dishonest; it "will be enough for prosecutors to show that an individual knowingly participated in one of the categories of criminal cartel agreement... and that relevant information about the arrangements was not to be given to customers, or published, before its implementation".