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Guidance

Report a cartel to the CMA

Tell the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about rival businesses agreeing not to compete.

Use this service to tell the CMA if you know about or suspect cartel activity.  

You could receive a reward of up to £250,000 for information that leads to an investigation. 

You can tell us about businesses:  

  • agreeing not to compete with rival businesses 

  • agreeing not to hire each other’s employers (‘no-poach’) 

  • agreeing prices with competitors (price fixing) 

  • agreeing to fix employee wages with competitors 

  • agreeing to share markets or customers 

  • colluding when bidding for contracts (bid rigging) 

  • sharing commercially sensitive information with competitors 

  • submitting inflated tender bids to make others appear good value (cover pricing) 

Learn more about different types of cartels and read case studies where we’ve taken action against business cartels.  

Before you start 

When making your report, you can provide evidence of the cartel activity. This might include emails, screenshots or documents. If you don’t have this ready now, you can provide it later. 

You do not need to submit evidence to report something to us, but doing so may help us look into your report. 

You can choose to provide contact details or remain anonymous. 

Start now

What happens next 

We will respond once we have reviewed your information. After reviewing your report, we may:  

  • contact you for more information (if you have provided contact details)  

  • decide to take no further action 

  • investigate and take action if appropriate  

  • recommend that you contact better placed agencies or regulators 

  • refer the issue to another CMA team (this may delay a response) 

  • retain your report on file 

We are guided by the CMA’s prioritisation principles when we make these decisions. 

Apply for leniency as a cartel member 

Tell the CMA if you or your business has been involved in a cartel. A cartel is when 2 or more rival businesses agree to act together instead of competing. 

Coming forward and cooperating with our investigation could protect you from the consequences of being in a cartel. 

Find out more about our leniency programme. 

Telephone: 020 3738 6833

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