URCA 05/2024 – Competition Guidelines

These Competition Guidelines are designed to assist Licensees, and other interested Persons, in understanding how the competition provisions of the Comms Act and the Electricity Act will apply in practice with regards to procedural and substantives aspects and to determine if their conduct complies with these rules.

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ECS 04/2024 Preliminary Determination – Retail Fixed Market Review and Assessment

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URCA 03/2023 – Revision of the Competition Guidelines

The Competition Guidelines set out URCA’s Competition Policy and are intended to assist

Licensees, and other interested persons, in understanding how the competition provisions would

apply in practice with regards to procedural and substantives aspects, and to determine if their

conduct are complying with these rules. They also provide guidance on how a competition

complaint may be submitted.

As part of this review, URCA has taken into account, amongst others, its experience from the

application of the Competition Guidelines to date, as the current state and foreseeable

developments in the ES and ECS, and competition guidelines adopted elsewhere. This is to ensure

that any insights gained from the practical applications of the Guidelines are taken into account

and that the converged Guidelines remain fit for purpose. Additionally, by reviewing competition

guidelines in other jurisdictions that share similar characteristics or with a well-established

Competition Law doctrine, URCA aims to align its Competition Guidelines with international best

practices.

The purpose of this consultation is to: (i) present URCA’s proposed revisions to the Competition

Guidelines; and to (ii) invite feedback from all relevant persons on the proposed revision.

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URCA publishes first round responses for the Preliminary Determination on the Retail Fixed Market Review

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Public Register of: Individual Licensees and Class Licensees Requiring Registration

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ES – Public Register of Licensees

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URCA 04/2024 – Statement of Results and Final Decision – Revision of the Competition Guidelines

In this document, the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (“URCA”) issues its Statement of Results and Next Steps with respect to URCA’s Public Consultation on the revision of the existing Competition Guidelines.

URCA published its Consultation Document on the proposed revisions to the Competition Guidelines on 21 December 2023 (“Consultation Document”).1 The Consultation Document set out, inter alia, the following:

• the objectives and the approach adopted by URCA with respect to the revision of the Competition Guidelines;
• a summary overview of the key proposed amendments to the Competition Guidelines;
• to invite comments from stakeholders on the matters set out in the Consultation Document.

URCA also conducted on 18 January 2024 a half-day seminar at its offices in addition to being streamed by zoom. The seminar was attended to by licensees and members of the general public.

The responses to the Consultation Document were due on 21 February 2024.

URCA replies to the main comments it has received from BTC and the CBL Group and sets out its next steps. In doing so, URCA expressly states that the absence on its part of a response in this document to any comment made by any of the respondents does not necessarily signify URCA’s agreement in whole or in part with such comment, that URCA has not considered such comment, or that URCA considers the comment immaterial or without merit.

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ECS 03/2024 – Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector

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ECS 02/2024 – Statement of Results and Final Decision – Revisions to the Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (‘URCA’) issues this Statement of Results and Final Decision following the public consultation on its proposed revisions to the Consumer Protection Regulations for the Electronic Communications Sector (‘ECS’). URCA published the consultation on 18 September 2023.1 The original deadline for responses was 19 October 2023 however the deadline was extended to 30 October 2023 by request to allow for additional time to respond.

The Consumer Protection Regulations (‘Regulations’) were originally published on 30 December 2013 followed by a revised document referred to as Version 1.0.1 published on 7 February 2014.2 Due to the changes that have occurred in the sector and URCA’s experience with handling consumer complaints since the Regulations were first published, URCA found it necessary to update the Regulations to make them fit for purpose, clarify any ambiguity, and issue new measures in areas where consumers were not protected.

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