In August 2017 the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (the Authority) opened an investigation into whether there had been an infringement by PayPoint Plc and a number of its subsidiaries (PayPoint) of Chapter II of the Competition Act 1998 (the Competition Act). (Please note that when this investigation was opened it considered whether there was an infringement of Chapter II of the Competition Act and /or Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). However, since the end of the Transition Period, the Authority’s investigation continued on the basis of the Chapter II prohibition in the Competition Act only. Article 102 of the TFEU has ceased to apply.)
Our investigation examined whether PayPoint had abused or was abusing a dominant position in relation to the market for over-the-counter (OTC) top-up services to prepayment energy customers within Great Britain.
On 23 November 2021, the Authority decided to accept commitments from PayPoint. Formal acceptance of these commitments by the Authority resulted in our investigation being discontinued without any decision being made as to whether or not the Competition Act had been infringed.