Citation and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Enterprise Act 2002 (Commencement No. 2, Transitional and Transitory Provisions) Order 2003.

(2) In this Order—

“the Act” means the Enterprise Act 2002;

“appeal tribunal” means an appeal tribunal of the Competition Commission;

“existing appeal” means an appeal made to the Competition Commission under section 46 or 47 of the Competition Act 1998(2) or regulation 25 or 26 of the EC Competition Law (Articles 84 and 85) Enforcement Regulations 2001(3) which has not been finally determined before 1st April 2003; and

“the Tribunal” means the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

(3) In this Order (save where the context otherwise requires) references to sections and Schedules are references to sections of and Schedules to the Act.

Provisions of the Act commenced by this Order

2.  1st April 2003 is the appointed day for the coming into force of the provisions of the Act listed in the first column of the Schedule to this Order for the purposes set out in the second column.

Transitional and transitory provision

3.—(1) Any existing appeal shall be deemed to have been made to the Tribunal and shall continue as an appeal to the Tribunal and anything having any continuing effect done in relation to an existing appeal (including anything done for the purpose of an appeal from a decision made in relation to an existing appeal and anything done in connection with a request for a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in relation to an existing appeal) shall be deemed for all purposes to have been done in relation to an appeal to the Tribunal and is not to be invalidated by the commencement of any of the provisions brought into force by this Order.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (1), for the purposes of any existing appeal, anything done by the President of the Competition Commission Appeal Tribunals, the Registrar of Appeal Tribunals, and an appeal tribunal shall be deemed for all purposes to have been done by the President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the Registrar of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and the Tribunal, respectively, and the members of any tribunal constituted by the President of the Competition Commission Appeal Tribunals in relation to an existing appeal in accordance with paragraph 27 of Schedule 7 to the Competition Act 1998 shall be treated as being the members of the Tribunal constituted in accordance with section 14 of the Act for the purposes of the relevant appeal.

Article 2

SCHEDULEPROVISIONS OF THE ACT COMING INTO FORCE ON 1st APRIL 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into force on 1st April 2003 certain provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002. In particular, those provisions (a) create the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and transfer the existing functions of the Director General of Fair Trading to the OFT (sections 1 and 2); (b) provide the OFT with the function of promoting good consumer practice (section 8); (c) create the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) (section 12), provide for its constitution for certain proceedings (section 14 and schedule 2) and its rules (section 15 and schedule 4), and enable it to perform the functions formerly performed by the appeal tribunals of the Competition Commission (schedule 5); (d) create the Competition Service (section 13 and schedule 3); (e) repeal the exclusion from the Chapter 1 prohibition under the Competition Act 1998 for designated professional rules (section 207); and (f) make various related transitional, transitory and consequential provisions and repeals.

Article 3 of this Order also makes transitional and transitory provision in connection with the coming into force of the provisions relating to the Tribunal which supplement the transitional and transitory provisions in paragraphs 7 to 12 of Schedule 24 to the Act.

Note as to Earlier Commencement Orders

(This note is not part of the Order)