Record bans as price-fixing investigation bares teeth.
Two former directors of precast concrete specialist FP McCann have been handed record bans from acting as directors.
News portal Construction Enquirer is reporting that Eoin and Francis McCann were banned for 12 and 11 years respectively following an investigation by the cartel busting Competition and Markets Authority into price-fixing. This saw three suppliers of concrete drainage products fined more than £36 million for breaking competition law.
The CMA found that, from July 2006 to March 2013, FP McCann, Stanton Bonna Concrete and CPM Group agreed among themselves to fix or coordinate their prices, shared out the market by allocating customers and exchanged competitively sensitive information.
FP McCann appealed against the decision, but last December, the CMA’s determination was upheld by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
The CMA said that reflecting the serious nature of the infringement and the directors’ involvement, it had secured the longest bans on directors holding office to date.
Michael Grenfell, executive director of Enforcement at the CMA, said: “The length of these disqualification periods reflects the seriousness of this case. The CMA will continue to take strong action, where necessary, to protect the public from illegal anticompetitive practices.”
These disqualifications follow bans on Philip Stacey and Robert Smillie, who were previously directors of CPM, in April 2019.
