Reform of British Competition Policy: Is European Integration the Only Major Factor?

In 1998, Britain carried out the reform of competition policy legislation, which was the largest in the past twenty-five years. This paper examines the policy-making process leading to that reform and discusses the factors driving the movement. Since the original nationally-specific system was transformed into the more Europe-based system by the reform, it may be natural to look at the progress of European integration and other external changes as the main factors for that policy change. However, one should not ignore the effect of the change in the internal factors, that is, the endogenous development of competition policy officials. The main argument of the proposed paper is that the progress of European integration is important for explaining the domestic policy change in member states, but that we need to take account of the change in the domestic policy-making process as well.