Education Software Solutions Limited (ESS) is the largest provider of school management information system (MIS) software in England and Wales. In the UK, most state schools are required to have an MIS in place to handle information on staff and students including for handling attendance and safeguarding.
In April 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into whether ESS' conduct was anti-competitive by effectively limiting schools' ability to choose an MIS software provider and excluding its competitors. The CMA was concerned about ESS providing that its customers - schools in England and Wales - must move to three-year contracts, from their previous one-year contracts, without giving them sufficient time to make alternative arrangements with other software providers. The CMA was concerned that these changes reduced schools' choice of MIS software provider and made it difficult for other providers to compete with ESS to win business.
ESS has offered to give legally binding assurances, known as commitments, which would enable certain schools - broadly those schools which had been given insufficient time to switch providers - to apply to an independent adjudicator for a new break clause to allow them to escape their current three-year contract with ESS and choose alternative providers.
If the CMA accepts commitments, that does not itself entail a finding that the business giving the commitments has breached competition law, and in this case the CMA notes that ESS maintains that its behaviour was not anti-competitive.
The CMA considers that the proposed commitments address its competition concerns by giving affected schools the choice to exit their current three-year contract and switch to another MIS supplier, facilitating competition.
It is now inviting comments from schools, and others likely to be affected by the commitments, including on the eligibility criteria to apply for the new break clause and on any matters that may affect the effective implementation of the proposed commitments - for example, on the application form to be used. If accepted by the CMA, the commitments would bring the investigation to an end.
