Two directors of a concrete products firm have been disqualified after admitting a breach of competition law.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it has secured legally binding disqualification undertakings from Philip Michael Stacey and Robert James Taylor Smillie, who were directors of CPM Group.
The move follows the CMA’s statement of objections issued on 13 December 2018, alleging that three suppliers of precast concrete drainage products – CPM Group (CPM), Stanton Bonna, and FP McCann – breached competition law by taking part in a secret cartel for almost seven years from 2006.
The CMA has provisionally found that the cartel aimed to fix or coordinate prices and share out the market for certain pre-cast concrete drainage products in Great Britain.
As part of a settlement process, Somerset-based CPM and Derbyshire-based Stanton Bonna admitted to participating in the alleged cartel and have agreed to pay fines, which will be determined at the end of the CMA’s investigation. The CMA’s investigation into a third company which has not entered into settlement, FP McCann, continues and no assumption should be made that it has infringed the law.
Stacey and Smillie were directors at CPM throughout the period of the alleged cartel activity.
Stacey has been disqualified for seven years and six months, and Smillie has been disqualified for six years and six months.
Investigations are ongoing with respect to other directors and FP McCann, the CMA said.
