The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has taken action against 298 undertakings for cartelization and prohibited agreements so far to ensure protection for consumers. An official at CCP on Sunday highlighted the pre-emptive measures taken against cartelization and said the commission was striving to create awareness for a culture of compliance to rectify anti-competitive behaviour as in this process, it had achieved various successes through compliances and commitments.
He said in discharge of its statutory role under Section 29, it had issued 11 policy notes so far regarding any policy or law which was in conflict with the mentioned act.
The commission had also launched the initiative of reward payment to informants, while advocacy booklet under the title “Information Booklet on Protection from Anti-competitive Practices” was printed and disseminated by the CCP.
Moreover, he said the CCP also developed a research capacity and published research based publications in order to study the state of competition in the sectors and to act accordingly.
An online complaint cell had also been established for facilitation of general public, he added. He further said that the CCP had build a coalition of support by reaching out aggressively to the media, consumer associations, professional bodies, chambers of commerce, and sector wise business associations.
Enumerating the other measures adopted during last the three years against cartelization, the official said that 14 orders were issued in this regard, out of which two orders were issued by the Appellate Bench, four orders were related to prohibited agreements (Cartelization), five were related to abuse of dominant position and three were about deceptive marketing practices.
The official said that three policy notes were issued regarding Demutualization and Integration of Stock Exchanges in Pakistan, amendment in Bilateral Air Services Agreement of 1972 and price fixing agreement between All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and Ministry of Industries and Production.
In addition, he said an opinion on exemption of regulatory duty on import of ware potatoes by international fast food chains franchises was also issued while six inquiries, covering a wide range of commercial/economic activity were conducted where in violations of the mentioned act had been pointed out.
Similarly, in 2010-11, 19 orders were issued, along with two Policy Notes, while 52 show-cause notices were issued to companies, trade associations as well as individuals for violation of the act.
