CMA Chairman Andrew Tyrie to step down
The Rt Hon. Lord Andrew Tyrie, Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority, has confirmed that he intends to step down from his current role in September 2020.
Andrew Tyrie said,
I want to thank all of those with whom I have worked, and the many friends that I have made, for their kindness and support over the last two years. The CMA is an extremely hard-working institution, strongly committed to the public good.
On taking the role, I was asked by the Government to map out a route to a new type of competition authority, one better equipped to understand and respond to what most concerns ordinary consumers: penalties for loyal customers, price discrimination against vulnerable consumers, the difficulties faced by millions in getting good deals online, among them.
I was also asked to suggest ways in which the CMA could become more agile, less legally encumbered, and also with closer international ties, reflecting both the increasingly global and often digital nature of consumer detriment, and the CMA’s enhanced post-Brexit role.
We’ve all, particularly the most senior executive team and the Board, worked hard at the CMA to do that.
The CMA submitted proposals for wide-ranging legislative changes to the government last year.
It has taken forward important work to protect consumers, and it has imposed tougher penalties on those who break competition law.
And in our response to the coronavirus outbreak, we’ve reoriented the organisation to listen and act on consumer concerns more quickly and effectively. In responding, the CMA has shown a remarkable and unprecedented capacity to develop an emergency role.
I am delighted to have played some part in these achievements.
The Government asked me to take this work forward at great pace. I have done so. I now want to make the case more forcefully for legislative and other reform – in Parliament and beyond – than is possible within the inherent limits of my position as CMA Chairman.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will now commence the process for recruiting a new Chair of the CMA.