Bid rigging: Businesses told to stop resisting OFT cartel crackdown

Businesses have been urged to stop resisting a crackdown on price-fixing cartels, amid warnings of more prosecutions by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

OFT cartel head Simon Williams unveiled a new approach to targeting price fixing cartels, with criminal charges for major crimes and tougher use of director disqualification in less serious cases.

He told the Financial Times he was out to change attitudes to cartels, getting the mindset to a stage “where it is seen as nothing more than a species of simple fraud.”

Asked by the newspaper if the OFT was considering disqualification in any of its existing probes, the Mr Williams said: “In all the cases we investigate, keep an eye on the appropriateness of the director disqualification provisions.”