Taxi Driver Online

I do not have any "views" of you so my post are not affected. You are not significant enough to qualify for a "view". If you climbed down from the high altar on which you have placed yourself you would get a glimpse of the real world. Nothing anyone else says makes any sense to you because it is not what you want to hear.

Trade agreements, like mergers, affilliations etc are not illegal.
If two or moe compainies decide not to attack each others markets or territories that fine and nothing illegal. Look how pub chains swopped outlets and premises to save on distribution costs, nothing illegal.
Such "cartels" or trade groups have to be shown to be operating AGAINST the public interest to be illegal.

I dont think old sussex has a problem with standards just restrictions. Most of the counctry gets by very well with the former without the latter.
In my area we have both.
But I would rather get rid of restrictions than standards.

It's nice to see that your knowledge of competition law is on a par with your knowledge of taxi/PH law.

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IDFIMH

Reply.
FOR EXAMPLE......................
Where is the reference to back this, quote cases, quote Companies House anything to show that cartels in themselves are unlawful or illegal. Again you mis-quote or distort or take out of context anything that does not fit your selfish mantra.

Some pretty ropey economics and competition law on display from Mr Guest here, to put it as charitably as possible.

The OFT say:

CARTELS - WHAT IS A CARTEL?

In its simplest terms, a cartel is an agreement between businesses not to compete with each other. The agreement is usually secret, verbal and often informal.

Typically, cartel members may agree on:

- prices
- output levels
- discounts
- credit terms
- which customers they will supply
- which areas they will supply
- who should win a contract (bid rigging).

Each of the above types of cartel is prohibited by the Competition Act. The Enterprise Act makes it a criminal offence for individuals to dishonestly take part in certain specified cartels, essentially those that involve price fixing, market sharing, limitation of production or supply or bid rigging.

Cartels can occur in almost any industry and can involve goods or services at the manufacturing, distribution or retail level.

Some sectors are more susceptible to cartels than others because of the structure or the way in which they operate. For example, where:

- there are few competitors
- the products have similar characteristics, leaving little scope for competition on quality or service
- communication channels between competitors are already established
the industry is suffering from excess capacity or there is general recession.

Thus it's interesting that if private sector companies did what LAs and the vested interests in the taxi trade do in restricted areas then this would be a criminal offence, and punishable by a prison sentence to boot.

Maybe that's why the Govt don't like restricting taxi numbers - it makes them look more than a tad hypocritical.

Cartels are "illegal" under British Law and European law and furthermore Persons harmed by a breach of competition law will be able to bring claims for damages before a specialist competition body (the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)).

I doubt whether the scenario that Sussex has mentioned concerning Private hire companies and supermarkets would come under the strict definition of a Cartel.

The relevance of Cartels is adequately catered for in the 2002 Enterprise act and the EU EEA Agreement and also Article 85 of the treaty of Rome.

So make no mistake, under our own laws and that of Europe, Cartels who breach competition law and work against the public interest, "are illegal"

Best wishes

JD

John,
It amazes me does this thread, the things that have been said, the fact that these people run buisnesses is frightening.

what is happening in Brighton is a cartel, carving the market between themselves in front of council officials and the police.

its a bloody disgrace.

I obviously don't know what is going on down there in Sussex, therefore I can't comment with any authority on that particular issue. However, I do sympathise with anyone who is affected by the actions of this so called cartel, if indeed what they are doing is illegal and against the interest of the public and their competitors.

Perhaps, what they are doing may be completely legitimate under the law.

Best wishes

OFT warns cab firms against price-fixing

PN 01/01 10 January 2001

Private hire taxi companies must not get together to set prices, the Office of Fair Trading warned today.

The move comes as the competition watchdog sent warning letters to members of the Bury Private Hire Association. It was reported that the members agreed to raise their fares to £1.60 for the first mile and £1.50 for each subsequent mile.

The OFT became aware of the alleged price-fixing from local newspaper stories and from a complaint. The Association is reported to have nine members.

John Vickers, Director General of Fair Trading, said:

'Small businesses like private cab firms are not excluded from the 1998 Competition Act. The Act outlaws anti-competitive behaviour such as price-fixing by all businesses whether large or small in most sectors of the economy. All allegations of this type will be investigated by the OFT.

'No assumption should be made at this stage that there has been an infringement of competition law in the Bury case. We will not be in a position to decide that until we have all the facts'.

NOTES

1. The warning only applies to private cab firms and not to taxis licensed by public authorities where fares are decided by the authorities.

2. Powers under the Competition Act 1998

The Act gives the Director General powers to investigate suspected infringements of the Act's prohibitions:

a prohibition of agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings or concerted practices which have the object or effect of preventing, restricting or distorting competition in the UK (or a part of it) and which may affect trade within the UK (or any part of it); and

a prohibition of any conduct by one or more undertakings which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in a market which may affect trade within the UK or any part of it.

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IDFIMH

Thats all well and good Sussex but what is actually going on down there in Brighton and how many firms are involved? In Bury the whole lot of them were fixing one standard price.

Perhaps you can come up with more information to support your initial post.

Best wishes

John Davies.

This is only information that I have gathered from posts on TDO, and having spoken to a few drivers in Brighton and Hove.

In others words it might not be 100% pukka. But then again it might.

Every now and again, maybe monthly, the five main operators in B&H meet. They discuss many issues, but the one that we are on about is when they meet and discuss who is bidding for what, and for how much.

If Medigen send out a tender for an existing supermarket free-phone to all five, then the existing server keeps the free-phone. I don't think a free-phone has changed hands for 7 or 8 years. Now in a market with 5 big players, that just doesn't happen.

Tesco's, by all account have just opened a store in Hove. Despite Medigen sending out 5 tenders, none of the big five tendered a penny. Bearing in mind this store is right in the center, it's very surprising that not one of the firms didn't even offer a pound.

Mr Scanner, who is a share-holder of one of the firms, said on TDO (the search engine part of TDO is very good for things like that) that the firms had agreed not to bid.

Another issue that the search reminded me of was that fact that all five operators charge exactly the same fares to Gatwick and Heathrow on there websites.

Perhaps Mr Scanner will un-sulk himself and put me right.

_________________
IDFIMH

They also gang up other drivers. If you upset one of them you wont be allowed to work with any of them.
One of the lads did some private work for one of the firms big punters. Not only was he chucked off that firm he was also blacked from all of them.
Even though one of the others was run by his mate.
Corrupt the lot of them.