Former FP McCann bosses banned over role in price fixing

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) made the decision on the case

Two former executives at one of NI's biggest construction firms have been banned from acting as directors over their role in a price-fixing cartel.

Eoin McCann, the former managing director of FP McCann, was disqualified for 12 years.

Francis McCann was disqualified for 11 years.

Both men resigned their directorships on New Year's Eve last year though Eoin McCann remains the group's controlling shareholder.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that from July 2006 to March 2013, FP McCann and two other concrete product firms agreed to fix or co-ordinate their prices, shared the GB market by allocating customers and regularly exchanged competitively sensitive information.

These arrangements involved meetings attended by senior executives from each of the firms.

The CMA recorded a number of these meetings and used them as evidence when arriving at its final decision.

'Strong action'

FP McCann was fined £25m in 2019 while the other firms, Derbyshire-based Stanton Bonna Concrete and Somerset-based CPM Group, were fined more than £7m and £4m respectively.

Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of Enforcement at the CMA, said: "The length of these disqualification periods reflects the seriousness of this case.

"The CMA will continue to take strong action, where necessary, to protect the public from illegal anticompetitive practices.

"The message to directors is clear - you are personally responsible for ensuring that your company complies with competition law, and if it doesn't you risk disqualification."