Is all fair in love and haulage competition.
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Unfair competition is governed by overlapping and sometimes conflicting rules. And for once haulage enjoys some benefits compared to other industries.
The Competition Act 1998 applies the principles of European Union competition law to the UK. The EU law prohibits practices which distort trade between member states or otherwise distorts it in a significant part of the EU. The Competition Act does the same thing to stop trade being affected within the UK. The law is based on Articles 81 and 82 of the EU Treaty (these used to be called articles 85 and 86, just to confuse legal researchers and everyone else).
The first question which should be asked is, does the Competition Act 1998 apply to Road Hauliers?
The Competition Act contains rules which are in Chapter r (unsurprisingly, they are called Chapter r prohibitions). Section io of the Act says agreements are exempt from Chapter i prohibitions if they are exempt from the Community prohibition "by virtue of a regulation". There is a little known but vitally important EU regulation which looks after competition in road haulage—Regulation 1017/68 applies the competition rules to transport by road, rail, and inland waterways.
The establishment of rules for competition in transport are part of the EU's "common transport policy". P