LEGISLATIVE Council member and Chairperson of the Competition Commission of Brunei Darussalam Yang Berhormat Nik Hafimi binti Abdul Haadii encouraged businesses to conduct their activities in a fair and ethical manner for the benefit of their business growth.
By nurturing healthy competition, businesses can grow by competing on a level playing field to offer more choices, better quality products and services at better prices for consumers, including the government and other businesses, she said.
Yang Berhormat Nik Hafimi made these comments at a dialogue session with the Department of Competition and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) of the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE), Ministry of Finance and Economy yesterday.
Over 20 business representatives from the Anggerek Desa Technology Park (ADTP) community participated. They learnt more about the risks of anti-competitive practices prohibited by the Competition Order, in an effort to promote compliance with the Order.
The DCCA commended on the proactive initiative led by Dynamik Technologies Sdn Bhd in organising the dialogue session, which is in line with the department’s effort to promote business compliance before the Order is enforced.
At the opening of the dialogue, Legal Adviser for Dynamik Techologies Mohamad Hasnalluddin bin Haji Yahya emphasised the importance for the IT business community to learn more about the key anti-competitive conducts prohibited by the competition law, to ensure business plans and commercial strategies are not violating the Order, to ensure compliance in creating a fair and healthy market in Brunei Darussalam.
The Acting Director of the DCCA began the session by highlighting that businesses’ adherence to the Competition Order contributes to markets operating fairly, innovation, productivity and to overall and sustainable business growth and competitiveness, which will bring about benefits to consumers and the economy.
The dialogue discussed various forms of cartels categorised as serious offences, which are per se illegal. These cartels’ activities exist when businesses agree to act together instead of competing against one another.
The four key per se illegal cartels are collusive tendering, price fixing, controlling market and limiting supply of goods to create artificial shortage.
By controlling markets and restricting goods and services, cartels can put honest and well-run companies out of business, while suppressing innovation and protecting their own inefficient members.
This will potentially lead to harmful impact on the market, economy and the consumer welfare in the long-run.
Businesses are therefore advised to protect themselves from unfair and unethical business conducts for their business survival and growth.
The session highlighted the need for businesses to compete independently against one another in the tender process. Collusive tendering or bid rigging is one of the key serious anti-competitive conducts and it has different forms, including bid suppression, complementary bidding and bid rotation.
The session also discussed the leniency provision in the Order, one of the tools to gather evidence in detecting cartels. This provision provides immunity or protection from the Order for the first party who notifies the competition authority of the cartel conduct, provided that the member also meets all other requirements of the leniency programme.
The procedures and requirements will be published in the guidelines.
The Competition Commission of Brunei Darussalam was established on August 1, 2017, as an independent body that is mandated to promote business competition in Brunei Darussalam’s economic landscape through the enforcement of the Competition Order 2015.
The Department of Competition and Consumer Affairs was established on the same day as the secretariat, administrative and investigative arms of the Competition Commission.