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Viet Nam – First price-fixing fines
Nineteen insurance companies in Viet Nam have been fined the equivalent of EUR68,000 in total, for colluding to raise the price of car insurance. The investigation was conducted by Viet Nam’s Competition Authority between November 2008 and April 2010, before investigative hearings were held by the Competition Council. The fines represent 0.025 percent of the companies’ 2007 turnover. They have until early September to appeal. |
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Indonesia
The Indonesian Government issued on 20 July a new merger review regulation (Government Regulation No. 57 of 2010 on Merger, Consolidation and Acquisition which may Result in Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition). The new regulation provides for voluntary pre-merger notification and mandatory post-merger notification. This represents a change in direction from earlier proposals for mandatory pre-merger notification. Post-merger notification will be obligatory for any merger or acquisition involving a total asset value exceeding INR2.5 trillion (USD280 million) or a total acquisition value exceeding INR5 trillion (USD560million). |
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Japan
The Fair Trade Commission is seeking additional information from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group, regarding their plans to integrate their Australian iron ore operations, Nikkei business daily has reported. Steelmakers in Japan worry that higher prices may result from integration of the two suppliers, who together provide 60 percent of the iron ore consumed by Japan.
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South Korea – Task-force on abuse of market power
A task-force has been launched on orders from Prime Minister Chung Un-chan (who was replaced by Kim Tae-ho, earlier this week), to investigate whether large firms have been engaging in unfair business practices to the detriment of small firms. The task force includes officials of the Fair Trade Commission, Federation of Korean Industries, Small and Medium Business Administration, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Strategy & Finance and Ministry of Knowledge & Economy. While large firms have achieved record sales, “the benefit of an economic recovery has yet to translate to small firms”, Chung PM is reported as saying. |
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South Korea – Warning to beware of infringing foreign competition rules
South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun has cautioned the nation’s companies to take care to comply with competition laws in overseas markets: “When a growing number of countries are applying their antitrust regulations even to punish foreign businesses for cartel activities, our companies need to make extra efforts not to violate those rules. […] A violation could directly affect not only our economy but also our global competitiveness and credibility in overseas markets.” |
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OECD – Guidelines for Fighting Bid-Rigging in Public Procurement
On 11 August the OECD released its Guidelines for Fighting Bid-Rigging in Public Procurement. The Guidelines are designed to assist procurement officials to, first, reduce the risks of bid rigging through careful design of the procurement process and, second, to detect bid rigging conspiracies during the procurement process. The guidelines include a ‘Checklist for Detecting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement’ and a ‘Checklist for Designing the Public Procurement Process to Reduce the Risks of Bid Rigging’. (Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/19/42851044.pdf) |
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EU – EC confirms ‘dawn raids’ in polyurethane foam sector
Starting on 27 July 2010, European Commission officials carried out “unannounced inspections” at the premises of companies active in the polyurethane foam sector in several Member States. The Commission has stated that it has “reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated European antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices”. The Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from the relevant national competition authorities. |
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EU – EC investigates IBM
The European Commission has opened two formal investigations against IBM corporation, both in relation to suspected infringements of TFEU Art. 102, which prohibits abuse of a dominant market position. In the first case, IBM is alleged to have illegally tied sales of its mainframe hardware products to its mainframe operating system software, in the market for which IBM is said to be dominant, with the effect of excluding emulation technologies which allow critical applications to run on non-IBM hardware. In the second case, the EC is investigating whether IBM has sought to foreclose the market for maintenance services by restricting or delaying third parties’ access to IBM spare parts. IBM has said it will cooperate in the investigations, while accusing its rivals of orchestrating the complaints. |
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Events
Hong Kong – Asian Competition Forum: 6th & 7th December The sixth annual conference of the Asian Competition Forum will be held on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th of December this year, with the theme: “Capacity Building in New Asian Competition Regimes”. If you are interested in presenting a paper – or sponsoring this event – please contact Mr. Leo Sek: afleosek@inet.polyu.edu.hk or fax: (+852) 2330 9845. |
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Copyright © 2010 Asian Competition Law and Economics Centre (ACLEC), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
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