Global Forum on Competition 2022

The OECD Global Forum on Competition brings together every year competition officials from over 110 authorities and organisations worldwide.

The 2022 the Forum explored the topic "The Goals of Competition Policy" with a open session featuring Mathias Cormann (OECD Secretary General), Margrethe Vestager (EU Executive Vice-President), Rebeca Grynspan (UNCTAD Secretary-General, Carmine Di Noia (OECD Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs), amongst others.

Three other sessions open to competition authorities only explored: Subsidies, competition and trade, Interactions between competition authorities and sector regulators and Remedies and commitments in abuse cases. 

This session questioned whether competition law and policy needs to adapt as a policy instrument to better accommodate socio-economic trends such as the rising importance of sustainability. Is the current consumer welfare focus sufficient? Is the instrument of competition law enforcement still effective or does it need to be complemented by other instruments, or new legislation?

MATERIALS

Presentation by Weber Waller

Presentation by Esteban Greco

Contribution from Consumers International

Contribution from Pakistan

Contribution from Uzbekistan

Watch the replay of the session ⬇️

The number of subsidy measures implemented worldwide has in the recent years been steadily increasing. This may be a result of several factors, including recent developments that have required, and will continue to require, government intervention, such as the COVID-19 recovery, climate change, fragile and disrupted global value chains and the digital transformation.

Against this background, the Forum held a roundtable discussion on the extent to which, and how, subsidies should be part of the competition analysis of competition authorities. 

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This roundtable discussed how competition authorities and sector regulators co-operate formally and in practice, focusing on enforcement cases (mergers and antitrust). While in some cases co-operation tools are envisaged in legislation, formal agreements (such as Memoranda of Understanding) between competition authorities and sector regulators are common in many jurisdictions. In addition, informal co-operation is also common and can pave the way for more formal co-operation

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Significant market distortions may arise when some enterprises benefit from undue competitive advantages conferred by state actions, for example on the basis of their ownership, nationality or their activity in the market. These distortions can prevent competition from reaching its potential for economic growth, productivity and innovation.

This session featured a roundtable discussion to introduce the concept of competitive neutrality, explored how authorities around the world have promoted competitive neutrality, and highlighted the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Competitive Neutrality.

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