Last week’s decision in the Institute of Independent Insurance Brokers (IIB) v Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT) case was a tale of five regulators. It involved an appeal to the Competition Commission Appeals Tribunal against a decision by the DGFT rejecting claims by the IIB and Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) that the rules of the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) were anti-competitive.
In the first substantive appeal under the Competition Act 1998, the tribunal overturned the DGFT’s decision, providing a timely reminder of the breadth of the legislation and offering an interesting insight into the relationship between a regulator and its regulator. Such relationships are often constrained by legislation that limits appeals on points of law or applications for judicial review. Not so here, where appeals may be on fact and law and the tribunal enjoys the same decision-making powers as the DGFT.
