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Water companies required to develop access codes for common carriage under Competition Act 1998

United Kingdom
30/11/1999
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Ian Byatt, Director General of Water Services, announced on 12th November that water companies should be developing their terms and conditions for allowing other companies access to their network. His comments come in a letter to managing directors which sets out how the Director General expects companies to begin to supply water or sewerage services to customers by using another company’s network. This is known as common carriage. Mr Byatt said that he saw the Competition Act 1998 as the catalyst to achieve a more widespread use of common carriage. The letter also provides guidance on what companies should do, and the principal areas that they should address, when preparing terms for access agreements. OFWAT expects each company to be ready by 1st March 2000 to respond positively to enquiries and requests to use its network. This means that each company should have ready a statement of principles that govern this shared use. Any company that does not do this could be the subject of complaints under the Competition Act 1998. Mr Byatt commented that if a company were unreasonably to refuse to share its infrastructure or offer unreasonable terms, it may be abusing a dominant position. He said that if he received a significant complaint about this kind of behaviour, or suspected that a company might be abusing a dominant position, he would use his powers under the Competition Act to investigate and, if necessary, impose financial penalties. (OFWAT Press Release PN/64/99)

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