The Competition Commission Brunei Darussalam (CCBD) through its Executive Secretariat held an advocacy session on Chapter 253 of the Competition Act to the officers and staffs from the Industry and Business Ecosystem Division, Ministry of Finance and Economy recently.
The session aimed to enhance awareness and compliance with the Act among key stakeholders.
The Competition Act promotes and protects competition in the Brunei market, promoting economic efficiency, economic development and consumer welfare.
The Act prohibits business practices that restrict competition process in a market through some of these provisions:
ANTI-COMPETITIVE AGREEMENTS
The Section 11 prohibition on Anti-Competitive Agreements, also known as cartels, includes the agreements between two or more businesses to fix price, share market, rig bids and limit supply.
Businesses are expected to compete and make their business decisions independently, rather that engage in such agreements.
The session had also touched on the leniency regime under the Section 44 of the Act, which incentivise businesses that partake in a cartel activity to admit its involvement and disclose information about the prohibited conducts and provide full cooperation to the CCBD, in exchange for up to a full immunity from the penalty.
ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION
Holding dominant position in a market does not necessarily infringe the Section 21: Abuse of Dominant Position under the Act.
Infringements only occurs when such business abuses its dominant position by imposing predatory pricing or practising price discrimination, according to CCBD.
Predatory pricing describes a situation where a dominant business price its goods lower than its costs for a long period of time, with an intention to drive competitors out and eventually enable it to hold most of the market share.
Another example of abusive conduct is when a dominant business practises price discrimination, which is when it applies dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, which will then place the latter at a competitive disadvantage.
The advocacy session was delivered by economic officer at the CCBD Executive Secretariat Nur Izzawanie binti Haji Zainin.
Also present during the session was Head of CCBD Executive Secretariat Hajah Rena Azlina binti Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Aziz.
The CCBD welcomes any request for dialogue or briefing on the Act, which can be directed to exec.secretariat@ccbd.gov.bn.
