Regulatory review is well-timed
THE decision of the Royal Court to overturn enforcement action and alleged collusion between the island’s two leading telcos will inevitably turn attention to the actions of the Guernsey Competition and Regulatory Authority.
After all, overturning fines levied totalling more than £3m. is not to be sneezed at. Sure, the firm with by far the biggest fine, called on the States to hold the GCRA and its board to account.
In the normal run of events, that prospect seems slim. Public scrutiny of the regulator, as with other arms-length bodies, is done with a cursory nod through of its already out-of-date annual report.
However in this case the Committee for Economic Development should soon conclude a review of competition law and regulation, which will inevitably impact the GCRA. Work done last year has already identified that people were keen to clarify the regulator's scope and accountability, while the committee made it clear that the framework needed to be fit for purpose, to work for the States, enable business growth, and was proportionate to the island’s size – in short, ‘right-sized’.
With the regulator recording a financial deficit for the year in 2023 and looking for more cash from the States, and this court decision, after Sure claimed it was only doing what the States had asked it to do over the launch of 5G, the review’s conclusions, expected soon, should be revealing.