The FCA’s competition law powers

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Produced in partnership with David Trapp of Simmons & Simmons
Practice notes

The FCA’s competition law powers

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with David Trapp of Simmons & Simmons

Practice notes
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Overview of the fca’s competition law powers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a statutory objective under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000) to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers in the markets for regulated financial services and services provided by a recognised investment exchange. Moreover, it also has a duty to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers when advancing its other two statutory objectives: consumer protection and market integrity. The FCA can investigate markets where competition may not be working well for consumers, and intervene where appropriate. The FCA can only use these powers for the firms and activities it regulates.

However, the FCA has also been granted concurrent competition powers with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for financial services by virtue of the Enterprise Act 2002 (EA 2002). Under the EA 2002 the FCA can investigate whether any market for financial services is working well, thus expanding its powers of investigation beyond the firms and activities that it regulates. The FCA can also make a market

David Trapp
David Trapp

Solicitor, Simmons & Simmons

David joined Simmons & Simmons in 2020 having trained and spent seven years qualified in the competition team of Freshfields in London.

David advises clients across all aspects of contentious and non-contentious EU and UK antitrust and competition law as well as national security and foreign investment regulation. His merger control work has included high profile UK and global transactions where he has managed the regulatory approval processes within the UK, the EU, and around the globe. His contentious work includes acting for clients subject to the European Commission interchange fee investigations as well as Competition and Markets Authority pharmaceutical probes.

David has experience of working within a broad range of industry sectors including financial services, retail and various consumer goods, technology media & telecommunications, energy and infrastructure.

David was called to the Bar of Lincoln’s Inn in 2008. In 2016 / 2017 David spent seven months on secondment to the CMA where he was part of the policy team, and in 2021/22 he spent seven months on secondment in the competition team of a multinational universal bank.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
FCA definition
What does FCA mean?

conduct-authority'>financial conduct authority which succeeded the FSA and is responsible for ensuring the relevant markets function well, for the conduct supervision of firms not supervised by the Prudential Regulation authority, protecting consumers and promoting competition

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