The Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities (CICRA) has published its work programme for 2019.
These cover the three areas of work as the economic regulator in the Jersey and Guernsey telecoms sector, the Jersey postal and ports sector. It also covers its role in competition law enforcement across the two islands.
Developing a telecoms regulatory framework to support policy ambitions in each island for next generation connectivity, improving prospects for innovation and reviewing whether wholesale pricing of broadband is based on a fair return feature among its top priorities for 2019.
As the economic regulator of Ports of Jersey since its commercialisation the main areas of its work will be maintaining transparency of quality of service achieved by Ports of Jersey and setting a long term pricing framework for the airport and harbour operations where Ports is the monopoly provider.
Ensuring that certain mergers or acquisitions do not lead to unacceptable risks to consumers from market concentrations when competitors acquire each other is a key area of the Competition Authority’s work in competition law enforcement. The Authority also carries out a number investigations on a confidential basis, publishing decisions following due process. Though in many cases these are resolved before formal action is required.
The Authority maintains a watching brief on the postal sector and regulates by exception.
