Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Competition Law and Trade Associations: Discussion

Mr. Brian McHugh:

No, we do not turn blind eyes for anyone. We have written to Bank of Ireland highlighting concerns and we will write to the Beef Plan Movement. We have written letters to others to work towards achieving compliance in the first instance.

A huge amount of our resources are involved in the ticketing investigation and the insurance investigation. These are big corporate players. This is a huge element of what we do. We are not scared of anyone no matter what size they are. Where there is evidence we will go there. The insurance issue is about price signalling. If there is price signalling it is a concern. When we engage with parties we have these discussions. It can be quite technical, in terms of competition law and the issues surrounding it, but the more we have these discussions the more we learn and the more we can highlight what would and would not fall within competition law.