Investigation under section 25 of the Competition Act 1998 in respect of the rules for membership of the Railway Assessment Centre Forum (RACF).
Decision to accept commitments proposed by RACF
On 4 April 2022 ORR published its decision to accept bindings commitments from RACF, following an investigation into a suspected infringement of the Competition Act 1998 in relation to membership rules of the RACF.
Formal acceptance of commitments by ORR has resulted in the discontinuance of the investigation, with no decision made as to whether or not the Competition Act 1998 has been infringed.
January 2022 consultation
On 12 March 2021 we opened a formal investigation under the Competition Act 1998, having determined that we had reasonable grounds at that stage to suspect that the RACF had infringed the provisions set out in Chapter I of the Act (the Chapter I prohibition) in relation to rules pertaining to membership of the RACF in the UK.
On 22 November 2021 RACF offered commitments to ORR, for the purpose of addressing the competition concerns arising from the conduct being investigated.
On 27 January 2022 we published a notice of proposal to accept the commitments offered by the RACF and invite representations from interested third parties on that proposed course of action.