International co-operation: Key to increasing competition in a globalised world

Globalisation, the increasing significance of emerging economies, the borderless nature of the growing digital economy, and the proliferation of competition regimes have created a world in which an increasing number of businesses pursue global strategies.

There is therefore a greater need to:

• avoid inconsistencies and duplication of effort among governments enforcing their competition laws, and

• help multinational businesses comply cost effectively with the competition regimes of multiple jurisdictions.

Over its first 50 years of existence, the OECD and its  Competition Committee have taken a leading role shaping the current framework for international co-operation among competition enforcement agencies. Recommendations, best practices and policy roundtables have served not only as model and inspiration for national initiatives but have served as the primary drive for promoting co-operation on a global scale.

The OECD and its Competition Committee offer competition officials from developed and emerging economies a unique platform to monitor the state of international co-operation and to develop new solutions to increase its effectiveness.  The Committee’s work benefits from the support of a professional Secretariat and from the Organisation’s whole-of-government approach, taking advantage of other OECD Committees’ expertise and experience in international co-operation.

See also:

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Key issues to consider

• What are the existing types of international co-operation?

• What is the value of international co-operation?

• What are the changes in co-operation since the issuing of the 1995 recommendation?

• What is the OECD role?

• What are the constraints on further co-operation?

The OECD project on international co-operation

The OECD Competition Committee focuses its future work on two strategic themes: International co-operation in competition enforcement and Evaluation of Competition Interventions. The work on international co-operation remains at the core of the activities of the Committee and its working parties and will contribute to shaping new models for co-operation for the benefits of enforcers and businesses alike.

The international co-operation project aims at:

• studying and sharing experience and insights on international co-operation among competition agencies with a view to improving it. 
  
  
• exploring of the policy rationale for international co-operation,
  
  
• reviewing the relative merits of various forms of co-operation and lessons to be learnt from co-operation efforts in other policy fields,
  
  
• identifying constraints on greater co-operation,
  
  
• analysing experience over the past 17 years with the 1995 Recommendation of the Council concerning Co-operation between Member Countries on Anticompetitive Practices Affecting International Trade  and checking whether there are areas where improvements are needed.

If you have questions, comments or would like further information regarding the Competition divison's work on International Co-operation, please contact us at Antonio.CAPOBIANCO@oecd.org.

Related links and documents

• Stocktaking exercise of the Competition Committee's past work on international co-operation (2012)

• International Co-operation in Cartel Investigations, discussion held during the 2012 Global Forum on Competition

• Cross-Border Merger Control: Challenges for Developing and Emerging Economies, discussion held during the 2011 Global Forum on Competition

• Recommendation concerning co-operation between OECD countries on anticompetitive practices affecting international trade (1995)

• Recommendation on Hard Core Cartels (1998)
  
  
• Recommendation on Merger Review (2005)
  
  
• Best Practices for the formal exchange of information between competition authorities in hard core cartel investigations
  
  
• Positive Comity, 1999 (pdf)
  
  
• Notification of Transnational Mergers, 1998 (pdf)
  
  
• The Whish-Wood Report, 1992 (pdf)

Best practice roundtables

Calendar of activities

Competition assessment toolkit

Country reports & peer reviews

Fighting bid rigging in public procurement 

Recommendations

Reports by the Competition Committee

Reports by competition agencies

Work in progress

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