OFT plans greater director disqualification powers

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published proposed changes to its guidance on director disqualification orders in competition law cases.

Under current law, directors can be barred for up to 15 years for a breach of competition rules. In the past, the consumer watchdog has only gone after directors who are personally involved in cartel activity. But now it plans to punish even those who were not directly involved but should have known their companies were breaking the law.

This consultation concerns proposed changes to the OFT's Guidance on the circumstances in which the OFT and certain sectoral regulators will exercise their powers to apply for a Competition Disqualification Order (CDO) under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (as amended).

OFT guidelines currently state that the OFT or a regulator would focus on cases where a director was directly involved in a breach of competition law, such as cartel activity. The proposed guidance would indicate that the OFT or a regulator would also focus on cases where a director should have taken steps to prevent a breach or where a director ought to have known of a breach but did not.

View the proposals in full here and have your say