ABSTRACT
Until 1956, the discretionary and flexible investigative system adopted under the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act 1948, involving references to the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission (MRPC), was the only available tool to control cartel activity. However, in its general report in 1955, Collective Discrimination99 the MRPC commented on the problems caused by cartels and advocated that there should be a more rigorous approach adopted towards anti-competitive agreements. The report demonstrated the clear concern of the MRPC regarding the prevalence of cartels in industry and their pernicious effects on the UK economy. A majority of the Commission members favoured the introduction of a prohibition system for anti-competitive agreements but the minority’s preferred option of a system of registration and scrutiny of agreements prevailed. The Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956 largely implemented the minority’s recommendations by introducing a system of registration and case by case analysis of agreements which would no longer be covered by the investigative system under the 1948 Act. As a result of the Collective Discrimination Report and the Report of the Committee on Resale Price Maintenance100 which criticised agreements to maintain resale prices, the 1956 Act also dealt with collective fixing of resale prices-collective resale price maintenance. Subsequently, the Resale Prices Act 1964 was introduced to tackle the problem of individual, or vertical, resale price maintenance. Resale price maintenance is the practice by which a producer fixes the resale price of his goods.
