Competition law awareness: dealing with competitors
Recognize the conduct competition (antitrust) law treats most seriously, such as agreeing prices, rigging bids and sharing out customers or markets, and why informal chats and information exchanges with competitors can cross the line. Know how to behave at trade associations and events, and exactly what to do if a competitor raises prices, bids or customers: refuse, leave, record and report. Awareness level with US (FTC, DOJ) and UK (CMA) examples; local law and your legal team govern.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 45 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Recognize price fixing, bid rigging and market or customer allocation, including informal and unwritten arrangements
- Identify competitively sensitive information (future prices, bids, costs, customers, capacity plans) that must not be shared with competitors
- Distinguish normal trade association business from discussions that raise competition law concerns
- Respond to a competitor who raises prices, bids or customers: refuse clearly, leave, record and report promptly
- Explain that independent decisions, such as matching a competitor's public price on your own, are different from agreements
Course outline
- 1.Competition law: dealing with competitorsVideo · 3 min
- 2.What competition law protects, and what's off-limitsLesson · 15 min
- 3.Sensitive information, trade associations and eventsLesson · 15 min
- 4.If it happens: refuse, leave, record, reportLesson · 15 min
- 5.Competition law awareness: dealing with competitors: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 19 questions
- 6.A conversation at the trade dinnerScenario
- 7.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- U.S. FTC: Guide to Antitrust Laws: Dealings with Competitors (price fixing, bid rigging and market division as per se violations)
- U.S. FTC: Price Fixing (agreements written, verbal or inferred from conduct; independent pricing)
- U.S. FTC: Bid Rigging (bid rotation, bid suppression, subcontracting)
- U.S. FTC: Spotlight on Trade Associations (prices, information exchange, future pricing plans)
- U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division: Leniency Program
- GOV.UK (CMA): Cartels: come forward and apply for leniency (what a cartel is; formal or informal, verbal or written)
- GOV.UK (CMA): Collaborating with other businesses (complying with competition law when working with other businesses)
- GOV.UK (CMA): Make a whistleblower report
- General workplace practice (awareness level; local law and your organization's policies govern)
See it with your own jobs and topics
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