The Multilateral Mutual Assistance and Cooperation Framework for Competition Authorities (MMAC) was signed today by Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive Officer of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, marking a new chapter in inter-agency cooperation to address cross-border anti-competitive activity in an increasingly global economy.
Along with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the New Zealand Commerce Commission, Competition Bureau Canada, the United States Department of Justice and the United States Federal Trade Commission, the CMA hopes that this ambitious agreement will be the first step to bolstering cooperation between these bodies to assist competition investigations.
The new multinational framework includes a memorandum of understanding focused on reinforcing and improving existing cooperation and coordination on investigations. It also contains a model agreement to support the development of individual arrangements among the participants that may include the exchange of case information and assistance in individual competition investigations, to the extent permitted by respective national laws.
Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive Officer of the Competition and Markets Authority, said:
I am very pleased to launch this new framework alongside our international counterparts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. I hope it will form the basis for future collaborative agreements to address anti-competitive practices that affect us all.
As the UK prepares to leave the EU and the CMA embraces its expanded role, it is even more important for us to forge strong relationships across the world, and work with partners both closer to home and further afield.
This new framework will enhance the CMA's existing relations with these trusted partners and support effective cooperation, including sharing information and cross-border intelligence gathering, in doing so assisting the UK's competition investigations.
