Revised Model Bill on Competition
| Author | Commonwealth Secretariat |
| Pages | 241-290 |
Page 241
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At their Meeting in Durban in 1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) emphasised the importance of a robust competition atmosphere in a global economy. CHOGM requested the Secretariat to explore ways and means to promote consensus on international trade which includes competition law. The main objective of competition policy and law is to preserve and promote competition as a means of ensuring the efficient allocation of resources in an economy. This should result in lower prices and adequate supplies for consumers and, it is hoped, faster growth and a more equitable distribution of income. By lowering barriers to the entry of new firms into an industry, competition policy helps to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurial development, an essential prerequisite for a vibrant economy (OECD and Khemani 1998).
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As Law Ministers will recall, in response to this request, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division (LCAD) of the Secretariat developed a model bill and submitted the same to the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting (LMM) in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2002. After careful consideration, the LMM instructed LCAD to revise the (2002) model bill to take into account the needs of small and vulnerable sectors of the economy that have been systematically disenfranchised from meaningful competition activities.
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In light of this directive the (2002) model bill was referred for initial redraft, an exercise which was undertaken and finalised in September 2003. The Law Development Section (LDS) of LCAD then distributed copies of the Bill to Law Ministers for their comments. Expert Groups were then convened in each region of the Commonwealth to seek views on the possibility of further amendment to the Bill where necessary.
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The first of the Expert Group Meetings took place from 10-14 May 2004, in Singapore. The countries represented were India, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
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The LDS conducted its Pacific meeting from 8-12 November, in Apia, Samoa. The countries represented were Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.
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The third of these series of Expert Group Meetings was held in Nassau, the Bahamas from 13-17 December. Representatives at that meeting hailed from the Bahamas, Belize, CARICOM, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
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The fourth regional session was held in Seychelles from 4-8 April, for the African region. With representatives from most of Commonwealth Africa, that meeting brought delegates from Botswana, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia. The meeting also benefited from the input of the Special Advisory Services Division(SASD) as well as delegates from the Secretariats of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Page 242
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The redraft of the Model Bill presented to Law Ministers is therefore the culmination of the composite thoughts of these regional experts. In a Final Expert Group Meeting on the Competition Bill, which took place at the Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, from 25-29 July, the Bill was fine tuned by a blend of experts culled from the series of regional meetings.
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Submitted as Annex I is the rationale from some of the regional experts for a robust Competition Bill, particularly in small developing economies.
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Submitted as Annex II is a chart representing the Investigation and Hearing Procedure contemplated by the Model Bill.
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The long title sets out the scope of the Bill, namely to promote, maintain and encourage competition, to prohibit anti-competitive activities and unfair practices, to establish a Competition Commission, to promote the interests and welfare of consumers and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
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Sub-clause (1) contains the definitions of terms used in the Bill:
"acquire" is defined in wide terms in relation to goods and services and includes in relation to goods a right or interest by way of a purchase, lease, gift, contest, exchange, hire, hire purchase, and in relation to services the acceptance of the rendering of services;
"agreement" means an agreement between enterprises...
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