UK Watchdog Secures Victory in Information Battle with BMW and VW

Great news for the UK's fair competition watchdog! They just won a big legal fight over their right to ask for information from companies outside the UK. This all started because they were checking into BMW and Volkswagen for playing fair.

BMW and Volkswagen, both from Germany, said the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shouldn't be able to ask for documents and stuff during their check. BMW's parent company, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, got a £30,000 fine (that's about $37,991) in December 2022. They also had to pay £15,000 every day for not sharing info about the investigation.

Last year, a group called the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) canceled the fine. They said CMA can't ask for info from outside the UK if the companies are also from outside. Volkswagen also got their way, saying CMA can't ask them for info.

But guess what? The Court of Appeal turned things around on Wednesday. They said if CMA can't ask for info from companies outside the UK, it would leave a big gap in their powers. The court's written decision said that without this power, it might encourage the bad guys to move overseas to plan things that hurt the UK market. That way, they'd be almost safe from investigation.

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