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Supply of construction services

Competition Markets Authority

November 30
11:00 2022

Case timetable

Date Action
November 2022 Ongoing consideration of representations (next update January 2023)
June to November 2022 Receipt and consideration of representations on the statement of objections
24 June 2022 Issue of Statement of Objections and settlement announced
March 2022 Investigation continuing (next update July 2022)
December 2021 Investigation continuing (next update March 2022)
February 2021 Decision taken to continue with the investigation (next update October 2021)
December 2020 Further investigatory steps and assessment of evidence (next update February 2021)
June 2020 Further investigatory steps and assessment of evidence (next update December 2020)
October 2019 Decision taken to proceed with investigation (further update June 2020)
March 2019 to September 2019 Initial investigation: information gathering

Change log

The following changes have been made to the case timetable since it was first published in March 2019:

Date of change Reason for change Change made to timetable
21 December 2021 Additional time needed to undertake steps Date of further update changed from October 2021 to December 2021
1 June 2020 Additional time needed to gather and analyse additional information Date of further update changed from April 2020 to June 2020

Statement of Objections and settlement

24 June 2022: On 23 June 2022, the CMA issued a statement of objections provisionally finding that 10 suppliers of demolition and removal of asbestos services breached competition law by taking part in bid rigging, in the form of cover bidding. The statement is addressed to Brown and Mason Group Limited (as economic successor to the company directly involved in the infringement, Brown and Mason Limited (Brown and Mason)); Cantillon Limited (Cantillon), and its parent company, Cantillon Holdings Limited; Clifford Devlin Limited (Clifford Devlin); DSM Demolition Limited (DSM) and its parent companies, DSM SFG Group Holdings Limited Nobel Midco Limited and Nobel Topco Limited; Erith Contractors Limited (Erith) and its parent company Erith Holdings Limited; John F Hunt Limited (John F Hunt) and its parent company John F Hunt Group Limited; Keltbray Limited (Keltbray) and Keltbray Holdings Limited (as economic successor to Keltbrays parent company Keltbray Group (Holdings) Limited); McGee Group (Holdings) Limited (McGee) and its parent company MFCOIL Limited; T. E. Scudder Limited (Scudder), P.J. Carey Plant Hire (Oval) Limited and Scudders parent company, Carey Group Limited; and Squibb Group Limited (Squibb)

Eight of the firms Brown and Mason; Cantillon; Clifford Devlin; DSM; John F Hunt; Keltbray; McGee and Scudder have admitted their participation in the alleged bid rigging and agreed to pay fines under the CMAs settlement policy. Provided they comply with the terms of the settlement, any fines of the settling firms will be discounted to reflect the resource savings to the CMA generated by the firms admissions and their cooperation with the CMAs investigation. The final level of any fines will be decided by a new case decision group, in accordance with the CMAs administrative process.

Scudder and McGee also reported their involvement in the conduct under the CMAs leniency policy and will also benefit from a leniency discount on any fines, provided they continue to co-operate and comply with the other conditions of the CMAs leniency policy.

The CMAs investigation into 2 further companies, Erith Contractors Limited and Squibb Group Limited continues and no assumption should be made that they have infringed the law.

Press release: CMA provisionally finds illegal cartels in construction industry (24.6.22)

Case information

The investigation concerns suspected infringements of Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998 (CA98).

This case is at an early stage and no assumption should be made that the CA98 has been infringed. The CMA has not reached a view as to whether there is sufficient evidence of an infringement of competition law for it to issue a statement of objections to any of the parties under investigation. Not all cases result in the CMA issuing a statement of objections.

If the CMA issues a statement of objections, it will provide the addressees of that statement of objections with an opportunity to make written and oral representations. Find more information in the CMAs Procedures in Competition Act cases.

Personal data

The CMA may collect, use and share personal data for its investigations, including investigations under the Competition Act 1998. This includes processing personal data for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You can find more information about how the CMA handles personal information in the CMAs Personal Information Charter.

Contacts

Media enquiries

020 3738 6460, press@cma.gov.uk

Investigation Team Leader

Padraig Sheerin, padraig.sheerin@cma.gov.uk

Assistant Project Directors

Richard Brown, richard.brown@cma.gov.uk

Laila Benfaida, laila.benfaida@cma.gov.uk

Project Directors

Emma Lindsay, emma.lindsay@cma.gov.uk

Sean McNabb , sean.mcnabb@cma.gov.uk

Senior Responsible Officer

Juliette Enser juliette.enser@cma.gov.uk

Published 21 March 2019
Last updated 30 November 2022 +show all updates
  1. Update to administration timetable published.

  2. Statement of Objections and settlement published.

  3. Case timetable updated.

  4. Additions to the case timetable and change log published.

  5. Case timetable updated.

  6. Case timetable updated.

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