Law society breaches competition rules over financial regulation training for conveyancers

Johnson, Diana

Abstract

The article considers the impact of a competition law ruling against the Law Society of England and Wales.

The Law Society was found to have breached UK competition law rules in relation to its provision of anti-money laundering and mortgage fraud training courses to law firms. The Law Society made it a condition of membership of its Quality Conveyancing Scheme that all law firm members must only receive this training from the Law Society. A competing provider of legal training courses, Socrates Training Limited (Socrates), successfully made the case that this was an anti-competitive practice.

The Law Society was ordered to pay costs in excess of £230,000 to Socrates.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 1, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 23, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2018
• Journal: Financial Regulation International
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: law society, competition
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/902307
• Publisher URL: https://www.financialregulationintl.com/financial-industry/law-society-breaches-competition-rules-over-financial-regulation-training-for-conveyancers-127927.htm?origin=internalSearch
• Contract Date: Feb 22, 2018