The former director of Lexon, a pharmaceutical wholesaler, will steer clear of all company management for the next four years since he was found to be involved in illegally exchanging information with rivals.

Competition law partner Sophie Lawrance comments on the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) policy of disqualifying the director of a guilty company – which has been successful 20 times since 2003.

Sophie notes that such disqualifications have been applied more strictly to smaller players, particularly those companies that are family-run because their directors’ involvement with anticompetitive conduct is usually more evident, compared with larger organisations. Taking into consideration that the CMA can start a disqualification investigation prior to fully concluding if an infringement has been committed, she asks, what impact do these actions have on the individuals involved?

To read the full article, see the GCR website. We discuss other competition law news on The CLIP Board.