Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – Corporate competition in every industry has always been seen as highly beneficial for the consumer. Throughout history to today major global corporations have attempted and, in many cases, successfully acquired competing entities to eliminate any competition. This always has a severe impact on the consumers as competitive pricing and the need to maintain quality and incentives may also decline as a single company or just a few companies in the market have less of a need to be concerned about loosing the consumer to a competing entity. This also impact workers as often when a large corporation purchases smaller competitors much of the common tasks will be assigned to fewer individuals resulting in lesser jobs.
Regulatory authorities have always played a key role protecting consumers; however, many corporations often find ways to bypass the local laws and remain anticompetitive. An extensive evaluation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK has provisionally noted that the completed purchase by Copart of Hills Motors may pave the way in a considerable reduction of competition in the market for salvage suppliers across the UK.
Kirstin Baker, chair of an independent panel of experts carried out a Phase 2 evaluation says “Vehicle insurance is a significant cost for many individuals and businesses and there is increasing demand for insurers to minimise their environmental impact, while keeping prices low. There are very few salvage companies who have a track record of servicing large national contracts for insurance companies, so we are concerned this deal could reduce the options for customers and this could lead to higher prices or lower quality services.”
She also invited views for both their provisional findings along with the potential solutions they have marked for tackling the concerns.
A recently released a notice on the possible solutions had a deadline for comments set for the 19 May with a request for interested parties to send their submissions on its provisional findings by the 26th of this month.
