UK regulator joins five-nation effort against supply chain price hikes

UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand team up to identify collusion between suppliers and shippers

The UK competition watchdog is teaming up with its counterparts in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in a drive to detect and investigate collusion between suppliers or shipping groups to hike prices.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it was linking up with its fellow agencies in other five eyes" nations after receiving multiple complaints" from businesses about supply chains, where, for example, fees for shipping have soared by up to 10 times compared with pre-pandemic levels in the past two years. The CMA said that despite the complaints it was yet to find evidence of potential breaches of the law.