The film and TV production sector is subject to two far-reaching investigations by the UK Competition and Markets Authority that has created challenges and uncertainty for the sector.
Pact members are invited to join us for a practical, industry-focused competition law awareness session to help the sector better understand and manage competition law risk. The event will be led by Wiggin LLP, a leading media and entertainment law firm with significant experience in film & TV and specialist antitrust expertise.
Relevant examples and case studies will be used, and attendees will have the opportunity to engage in the discussion and ask questions.
The objectives of the session are to:
- help ensure that executives and managers, especially in smaller independent film and TV production companies, the self-employed in ‘high-risk’ positions such as line producers, and certain other heads of department have a good understanding of the competition rules and how they can apply to their activities;
- provide attendees with a good understanding of the UK competition law framework and the key rules and principles;
- enable attendees to anticipate and identify potential competition law issues and understand the actions they can take to avoid or minimise antitrust risk; and
- help industry understand which matters they can discuss and those they cannot because of the competition law risk.
Areas to be covered include:
- UK Competition law framework, including the key rules, agencies, powers and sanctions;
- harmful anti-competitive arrangements and practices between competitors (e.g. price fixing and market sharing) and legitimate collaborative commercial arrangements, including measures that can be taken to reduce competition law risk;
- the dangers associated with the exchange of information between companies in the same sector, including distinguishing between unlawful and legitimate information exchanges;
- how the advent of social media, industry group emails and other fora (e.g. trade association meetings) heightens the competition law risk and how to avoid possible pitfalls in such groups as well as in informal settings;
- specific competition law issues for the film and TV production sector, including drawing from practical scenarios and examples; and
- overarching antitrust guardrails, Dos and Don’ts, risk mitigation strategies, etc.
