Competition regulator investigates price comparison sites

The competition watchdog is investigating energy price comparison sites over claims they may have colluded to prevent competition between each other.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is "investigating a suspected breach of competition law by some price comparison websites… in relation to paid online search advertising".

It is currently gathering evidence and will decide in August whether to continue with a formal review, The Guardian reports.

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This follows the energy regulator Ofgem confirming its own preliminary investigation had found two examples of websites agreeing not to compete in relation to paid-for online advertising.

Specifically, it said "two or more websites" had, since 2010, either been party to agreements or been shown in practice to have tailored the searches against which online advertising appeared, including through "negative matching" to ensure ads were removed when certain terms were searched.

Companies pay search engines such as Google to ensure "sponsored posts" appear at the top of search results for specific and are able to specify exclusions to better target a particular audience.

Ofgem began assessing the issue last October, the Daily Mail reports, but it has been forced to hand over the reins after admitting contacts by staff could compromise its impartiality.

The regulator said that in the process of buying online advertising as part of its own statutory remit to publish advice and information, some of its employees had contacted the companies in question to encourage them to change their behaviour.

Energy price comparison sites were investigated last year over the rates of commission they charge providers, but the case was closed with no action in March.

MPs questioned the bosses of uSwitch, MoneySupermarket, Compare the Market, Confused.com and Go Compare over claims they did not show the cheapest tariff by default if they did not stand to earn commission, the Mail adds.

Each company agreed to change its processes to show all tariffs regardless of commission rates.