News story: Andrea Coscelli named CEO of Competition and Markets Authority

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, has appointed Andrea Coscelli as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Dr Coscelli has held the position of Acting CEO since July 2016, taking on the role from the previous incumbent, Alex Chisholm.

The CMA is the UK’s independent competition authority. It has responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law, with the aim of making markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.

Dr Coscelli has been an Executive Director at the CMA since 2013. Prior to joining the CMA, Dr Coscelli was the Director of Economic Analysis at Ofcom, the regulatory and competition authority of the telecommunications, postal and broadcasting industries. He was previously a Vice President at Charles River Associates where he represented many different businesses on competition and regulation matters in various European countries.

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark said:

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Andrea Coscelli as CEO of the Competition and Markets Authority. Dr Coscelli is a recognised expert in competition and regulation, and commands respect in the business, and regulatory and academic community. I have no doubt he will make good use of his experience to further the CMA’s position as a world-respected regulatory and enforcement body.

I want to congratulate Dr Coscelli on his success in the role of Acting CEO, and I look forward to working closely with him in the coming years.

Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive Officer of the Competition and Markets Authority, said:

I am honoured to have been chosen to lead the organisation through the next phase of its development. The CMA has a central role to play in helping ensure people get a good deal from businesses. The role of markets is under public scrutiny and we will be actively engaging in that debate. As a core part of our role we will aim to connect right across the UK’s nations and regions to fully understand the challenges different groups of consumers and businesses face, and how we can help them.

We must also help ensure the continuing waves of exciting innovation in products and services fully benefit consumers and growth in the economy. As part of this, we need to ensure we intervene in markets in a timely and effective way, and only when necessary.

The coming years bring significant opportunities and challenges, in particular shaping and resourcing our regime for when the UK exits the EU. We enter this new phase from a strong base, with a skilled staff and well established ways of working.

David Currie, Competition and Markets Authority Chairman, said:

I and the CMA Board are delighted at Andrea’s appointment as Chief Executive. He has been outstanding in his role as Acting CEO over the past year, as the CMA has greatly increased competition and consumer enforcement, and was a key member of the senior team during the organisation’s successful formation. We have every confidence in his leadership as the CMA steps up to the major opportunities and challenges that the next few years will bring.

The CMA has responsibility for:

• investigating mergers which could restrict competition
• conducting market studies and investigations in markets where there may be competition and consumer problems
• investigating where there may be breaches of UK or EU prohibitions against anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominant positions
• bringing criminal proceedings against individuals who commit the cartel offence
• enforcing consumer protection legislation to tackle practices and market conditions that make it difficult for consumers to exercise choice
• co-operating with sector regulators and encouraging them to use their competition powers
• considering regulatory references and appeals.

Its responsibilities are supported by a range of powers which are based on the Enterprise and Regulatory Act 2013.