Should competition law be suspended to help deal with the COVID-19 crisis?

(By Peter Ormosi and Andreas Stephan) When the escalation in Covid-19 sparked panic buying and shortages of key products, UK supermarkets asked the government to consider suspending competition law, to allow them to co-ordinate supplies and reduce shortages. On 25 March 2020, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a document stating that,

Throughout the UK, business are… providing essential goods and services to consumers, to ensure key workers can carry out their important tasks and in getting the country through this crisis. The CMA understands that this may involve coordination between competing businesses. It wants to provide reassurance that, provided that any such coordination is undertaken solely to address concerns arising from the current crisis and does not go further or last longer than is necessary, the CMA will not take action against it. (paras 1.4 and 1.5)

This blog piece examines the consequences of providing this reassurance and asks whether it is a good idea.