The OECD Global Forum on Competition brings together every year competition officials from over 110 authorities and organisations worldwide.
In 2017, the Forum opened with a session on the topic Are competition and democracy symbiotic? followed by sessions on: Judicial perspectives on competition law, challenges faced by small agencies and those in Developing Economies, a peer review of Viet Nam's competition regime and competition in public markets.
This session considered if competition can be included amongst the success factors for democratic government particularly when considering countries transitioning to democratic systems of government.
Opening remarks by OECD SG Angel Gurría | Speech by Hernado de Soto
Competition cases are often characterised by complex litigation and differing sets of economic evidence. Compounding these difficulties, judges may also face the prospect of overturning decisions from a competition agency with vast resources and expertise that may exceed their own.
This roundtable discussion addressed various dimensions of the judicial adjudication of competition law. While recognising the differences that exist across jurisdictions, the discussion tried to elicit the main common challenges that judges face when applying competition law, and find ways to address those challenges.
Every competition agency has to overcome obstacles to enforce its competition law. But for small and developing jurisdictions these obstacles are often more acute, numerous and reinforced by challenges specific to these jurisdictions.
For this session, the OECD first circulated a survey among the Global Forum members, to discover what are the hardest challenges competition agencies are facing, and how they managed to overcome them.
The three most ranked challenges (Advocacy, Enforcement, and how can competition authorities overcome hostility or indifference?) were discussed during three parallel break-out sessions during which speakers from different agencies presented case studies for their challenges and success stories.
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PARTICIPATING DELEGATIONS
Austria ppt Brazil ppt Georgia ppt Latvia ppt Malaysia ppt |
Papua New Guinea ppt South Africa ppt RECAC (Central American National Competition Authorities Network) IDB ppt UNCTAD ppt World Bank ppt |
“Peer review” is a core element of OECD work. The mechanisms of peer review vary, but it is founded upon the willingness of a country to submit its laws and policies to substantive questioning by other peers. The process provides valuable insights into the country under study, getting to the heart of ways in which each country deals with competition and regulatory issues, from the soundness of its competition laws to the structure and effectiveness of its competition institutions.
Viet Nam underwent this review during the forum in 2017.
Like private firms, State-owned enterprises (SOEs) might seek to maximise profit, even if they ultimately re-invest the surplus that they earn. This roundtable discussion looked at investigations into anticompetitive conduct mergers, and agreements by SOEs, both those owned or controlled by a competition authority’s own government, and those owned or controlled by other governmentsThe aim of this session was to open up for discussion issues concerning the role of choice and competition in public markets, and the enforcement of competition law in those markets.
MATERIALS
Choice, Competition and Markets: Education, Health Care, and Public Services
Paper by Allan Fels and Darryl Biggar EN | FR
