The Competition and Markets Authority has closed its investigation into England’s largest school management information system (MIS) provider after it agreed to let eligible schools leave long-term contracts a year early.
But the watchdog will not rule on whether the company breached competition law when it scrapped normal one-year rolling contracts in favour of three-year deals.
Education Software Solutions (ESS) SIMS has given “legally binding” commitments to a break clause for eligible schools as part of the probe launched last April, and the CMA has now accepted these following a consultation with schools.
It means schools that “genuinely considered” switching providers before ESS SIMS scrapped one-year rolling contracts will now be able to apply to an independent adjudicator to exit their current three-year contracts on March 31 2024.
