Competition Law Enforcement In The Brics And In Developing Countries

This contributed volume focuses on competition policy enforcement in BRICS and developing counties. It examines the role and application of economic analysis and evidence in law enforcement procedures, as well as their influence on competition authorities’ policy-making. The contributors also address topics such as recent developments in competition law and practice, institutional design, indicators of performance in enforcement, the incorporation of public interest concerns in Competition Authority objectives, procedural fairness, procurement procedures and compulsory licensing.

Competition law has expanded to more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide with varying degrees of economic, social, and institutional development, raising important questions as to what is the appropriate design of competition law regimes and the interaction between competition law and economic development. This volume, comprising a selection of papers from the 4th BRICS International Competition Conference written by academic and practising economists and lawyers from both developed and developing countries, is distinctive in its focus on a broader view of competition policy in BRICS and developing countries. It examines the role competition, the application of broader public interest and national interest concerns in the analysis and influence on developing country competition authorities' policy-making. The contributors address topics such as: - a broad view of competition policy; - making markets work for the people as a post millennium development goal; - some key issues concerning the further development of China's antimonopoly law; - remedies in BRICS countries; - public interest issues in cross-border mergers; - crafting creative remedies in food markets in South Africa; - what are African competition authorities doing to fight cartels?; - successes and challenges in the fight against cartels; and the economics of antitrust sanctioning.

This book brings together perspectives of development economics and law to tackle the relationship between competition law enforcement and economic development. It addresses the question of whether, and how, competition law enforcement helps to promote economic growth and development. This question is highly pertinent for developing countries largely because many developing countries have only adopted competition law in recent years: about thirty jurisdictions had in place a competition law in the early 1980s, and there are now more than 130 competition law regimes across the world, of which many are developing countries. The book proposes a customized approach to competition law enforcement for developing countries, set against the background of the academic and policy debate concerning convergence of competition law. The implicit premise of convergence is that there may exist one, or a few, correct approaches to competition law enforcement, which in most cases emanate from developed jurisdictions, that are applicable to all. This book rejects this assumption and argues that developing countries ought to tailor competition law enforcement to their own economic and political circumstances. In particular, it suggests how competition law enforcement can better incorporate development concerns without causing undue dilution of its traditional focus on protecting consumer welfare. It proposes ways in which approaches to competition law enforcement need to be adjusted to reflect the special economic characteristics of developing country economies and the more limited enforcement capacity of developing country competition authorities. Finally, it also addresses the long-running debate concerning the desirability and viability of industrial policy for developing countries. The author would like to acknowledge the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for its generous support. The work in this book was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. HKU 742412H).

The book examines the potential for regional competition law systems as enforcement tools in developing countries, based on a case study of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, the Andean Community and the Caribbean Community. It analyses the allocation of enforcement competences between the regional/supranational and the national level and formulates detailed guidelines on the optimal degree of centralization or decentralization. The book addresses all readers that are interested in the enforcement of competition law in developing countries. Moreover, it provides practical insights for public institutions that wish to identify or prevent possible misallocation of competences within regional competition law systems.

This volume examines the controversy surrounding the use of competition law to combat excessive pricing. While high or monopolistic pricing is not regarded as an antitrust violation in the US, employing abuse of dominance provisions in competition laws to fight excessive pricing has gained popularity in some BRICS jurisdictions and a number of EU-member states in recent years. The book begins by discussing the economic arguments for and against the prohibition of excessive or unfair prices by firms with market power. It then presents various country studies, focusing on developed countries (such as the UK and Israel) and on the BRICS countries, to highlight various practical challenges involved in recognizing excessive prices as abusive conduct on the part of dominant firms, including how to define, measure and identify excessive prices. The contributors also discuss other policy options that can be used to fight excessive prices in order to protect consumer welfare.

Companies around the world and their advisors have realized, over the past few years, that they must be very aware of merger control and antitrust enforcement developments in Brasilia, Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing, and Pretoria. When one appreciates the extent of enforcement by the competition authorities of the powerful emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, it becomes clear that a fundamental change in the focus of international antitrust enforcement has occurred. Under the auspices of the International Bar Association, this timely, invaluable book examines in detail the fast-moving antitrust developments in the BRICS countries. Twenty-nine outstanding experts – practitioners, officials, and academics, each of them working in one of the five countries – present in-depth descriptions of the structure, powers, and procedures of their country’s respective enforcement agencies. Disclosure, transparency, benchmarking, portfolio of policymaking tools, and the speed, phasing, and priorities of implementation are all fully analysed. The authors provide summaries with implications of relevant cases in their jurisdictions. The issues and topics covered include the following: politics, resources, priorities; cooperation with criminal prosecutors and police; extraterritoriality; availability of administrative sanctions, criminal enforcement, and private actions; assessment of dominance; investigation: procedure, powers, burden of proof, appeal; procompetitive development of particular sectors of the economy; leniency programs; calculation of market share thresholds; triggering events/thresholds; notification thresholds and documents; employee and trade union involvement; and government participation and intervention. At a time when the BRICS antitrust agencies are increasingly asserting their roles in a multipolar antitrust world and cooperating with each other more and more, this thorough and up-to-date comparative analysis on what the BRICS countries are doing in the antitrust sector will be extremely valuable to corporate counsel worldwide. For academics and policymakers it will provide a highly revealing perspective on the current state of international competition law enforcement.

There is ongoing debate as to what competition law and policy is most suitable for developing jurisdictions. This book argues that the unique characteristics of developing jurisdictions matter when crafting and enforcing competition law and these shoul

At the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO members called for the launch of negotiations on disciplines relating to competition based on explicit consensus on modalities to be agreed at the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in 2003. WTO discussions since 1997 have revealed little support for ambitious multilateral action. Proponents of the WTO antitrust disciplines currently propose an agreement that is limited to "core principles"-nondiscrimination, transparency, and provisions banning "hard core" cartels. The authors argue that an agreement along such lines will create compliance costs for developing countries without addressing the anticompetitive behavior of firms located in foreign jurisdictions. To be unambiguously beneficial to low-income countries, any WTO antitrust disciplines should recognize the capacity constraints that prevail in these economies, make illegal collusive business practices by firms with international operations that raise prices in developing country markets, and require competition authorities in high-income countries to take action against firms located in their jurisdictions to defend the interests of affected developing country consumers. More generally, a case is made that traditional liberalization commitments using existing WTO fora will be the most effective means of lowering prices and increasing access to an expanded variety of goods and services.