Indirect Information Exchange: The Constituent Elements of Hub and Spoke Collusion

"One of the most interesting and challenging competition law questions of recent times has been the attempt to control the information an undertaking can receive about its competitors—not from the competing undertaking directly, but via a common trading partner."

"The paper is structured as follows: the approach developed in the UK and the legal basis for this approach is set out in section B. The approach developed to address the problem of indirect information exchange has caused considerable uncertainty, and some of these uncertainties are set out in section C. In section D, enforcement action based on the approach developed to tackle indirect information exchange is set out, and it is explained that this action is a further source of uncertainty. Section E is an attempt to articulate an approach to indirect information exchange that is consistent with the terms of Article 101 TFEU and analogous provisions, and is capable of distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate information flows between trading partners."