Part 13: General Schedule 7: Discretionary exclusion grounds Potential competition infringements
Paragraphs 7 to 10 set out that violations of the Competition Act 1998 through making agreements preventing, restricting or distorting competition (the Chapter I prohibition), or through abuse of a dominant position (the Chapter II prohibition) constitute discretionary grounds for exclusion. This applies even where there has been no decision by the Competition and Markets Authority or an equivalent regulator. However, the grounds do not apply where the CMA has granted immunity under its leniency scheme. Paragraph 11 applies in a similar way to involvement in a cartel under section 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002. The intention behind these grounds is to allow for exclusion where the contracting authority is confident that violations of the Competition Act have occurred even where there has been no decision by the CMA, which only investigates a small fraction of cases referred to it.