On 22 October 2009, the OECD Council adopted a Recommendation on Competition Assessment that calls for governments to identify existing or proposed public policies that unduly restrict competition and to revise them by adopting more pro-competitive alternatives. The Recommendation calls for governments to establish institutional mechanisms for undertaking such reviews. A number of approaches to competition assessment are possible. The OECD's Competition Assessment Toolkit outlines one approach.
Reasons for the Recommendation
Increased competition contributes to higher economic productivity and growth. In many jurisdictions, however, laws, regulations or other government-imposed barriers unduly restrain market activities. One important step to eliminate these restraints is “competition assessment”: evaluating policies to find those that unnecessarily restrict competition and developing alternative policies that achieve the same objectives, with lesser harm to competition.
Many jurisdictions have recently created guidance for reviewing competitive effects of regulations and developing an institutional mechanism for spreading this guidance. This OECD Recommendation encourages further government efforts to reduce unduly restrictive regulations and promote beneficial market activity.
Scope of the Recommendation
The recommendation applies to OECD member countries. Other economies are welcome to associate themselves with the recommendation. The scope of policies covered by the recommendation includes government regulations, rules and legislation.
Documents and links
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