United Utilities plc: treatment of tankered landfill leachate

No. CA98/01/32

Investigation into charges for the treatment of tankered landfill leachate by United Utilities Plc following a complaint made by Quantum Waste Management Ltd

20 May 2005

The Director General of Water Services (the Director) received a complaint under the Competition Act 1998 from Quantum Waste Management Limited (QWM) on 17 December 2001. QWM is a brokerage company that collects and disposes of landfill leachate at waste water treatment works and other sites. United Utilities Water Plc, a division of United Utilities Plc (United Utilities), is a statutory water undertaker under the Water Industry Act 1991.

The complaint concerned Bioprocessing (an arm of United Utilities), which receives tankered waste on behalf of United Utilities at its waste water treatment works. QWM alleged that United Utilities was abusing a dominant position in the market for the treatment of tankered landfill leachate: through the prices it charges customers and itself; by targeting certain customers to exclude competitors from the market; and by denying third parties direct access to its waste water treatment works. 

In autumn 2001, United Utilities approached QWM's largest customer and successfully offered to take over the transport as well as the on-going treatment of that customer's waste. QWM lost the haulage work for the three sites in question between January and March 2002. 

The Director opened his investigation into the complaint on 18 January 2002. At the Director's initiative the investigation went beyond the scope of QWM's complaint and included consideration of excessive pricing and discriminatory pricing. The Director's analysis shows that United Utilities is likely to have held a dominant position in this market at the time material to the complaint. However, United Utilities faces significant competitive constraints, which to some extent limit its market power. This is due to the nature of the market and the ability of customers to leave the market by building onsite leachate treatment plants.

After a thorough investigation the Director found there were insufficient grounds for him to issue a rule 4 statement of objections on any of the complaints raised by QWM. The Director also found that there were no grounds for such action on any of the other issues he considered on his own initiative.

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