Local authorities will be able to shut down poor and overpriced funfair rides under proposals being considered by the competition watchdog.
Millions of people who visit the UK’s travelling funfairs will also have a wider choice of rides and attractions on their doorstep if the Competition and Markets Authority accepts the new rules from fairground operators.
The CMA complained in December that a 128-year-old set of carnival rules drawn up by the funfair trade body, the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain, was out of date and stifling competition. But on Tuesday the CMA said the guild had offered to make changes to its rules to address the anti-competitive issues it had raised.
A series of legally binding commitments by the guild mean that individual ride operators are longer guaranteed a spot at a funfair if they have provided a poor service or a bad ride, and can be replaced by new ride providers. In addition, under the proposed rules going out to consultation, it will be easier to join the guild and offer amusements at the 7,000 fairs its members hold in the UK every year.
The competition watchdog said the guild, which represents 90% of the UK’s travelling fairs and has about 2,000 members, had rules that stop funfair owners from competing with one another to organise or attend fairs.
The guild rules also prevented members from starting fairs that might compete with existing funfairs, it warned. As a result, visitors to fairs were potentially missing out on improvements arising from greater competition, such as new rides and amusements, new fairs or different kinds of fairs in their local vicinity. It also made it difficult for local authorities to change or improve a fair.
The CMA estimates that the fairground market is worth £100m in the UK and claimed the existing guild rules could mean funfair goers are subjected to higher prices. The guild says there there are about 200 funfairs every week in the UK between Easter and Bonfire night, with the most popular attracting more than half a million fairgoers.
But in cases where local authorities try to alter or improve a fair without the consent of the guild, its members can boycott the event. That happened in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2013 which meant the popular Hoppings fair did not go ahead, disappointing the 500,000 fairgoers who usually attend.
“We welcome the guild’s offer to make changes to its rules and are now consulting on whether others agree that they meet our competition concerns,” said Ann Pope, a senior CMA director. “We believe that the current restrictions hinder change and innovation in funfairs. The new rules will enable more competition in travelling fairs potentially giving the millions of fairgoers who attend them every year access to new rides and to different fairs in their local area.”
The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain declined to comment.
