April 17, 2016
– Local enforcers will learn from practices in well-established regimes such as the US, Europe and Australia
Hong Kong could catch up quickly with mature economies in combating anti-competitive conduct such as price-fixing and bid-rigging, the head of the city’s competition watchdog said.
Local enforcers of competition law would be able to learn from well-established regimes such as those of the United States, Europe and Australia, according to Rose Webb, chief executive of the Competition Commission, in an interview with the Post.
“We are able to adopt others’ established practices,” said the competition chief, citing a programme aimed at encouraging whistle-blowers to tip off regulators about cartels – groups of separate companies that agree to fix prices and avoid competing with each other.
Hong Kong’s openness to the global business community also facilitated adaptation to such change in the regulatory environment, she noted.
“Most multinationals operating in Hong Kong already have competition compliance people operating in all the other jurisdictions, so they are just able to translate their compliance programmes directly into Hong Kong quite quickly,” the Australian competition expert said.
But while mature regimes like Australia, with decades of experience in implementing competition law, could cover more aspects, including the “fringes” of the field, the Competition Commission in Hong Kong was currently focusing on “fundamentals” like cartels, she said.
Webb played down concerns about insufficient funding or the availability of capable staff in implementing the city’s budding competition regime.
“Compared to a lot other new regimes, Hong Kong is doing very well. We are well-resourced. I think we’ve got enough to get started.”
But she did not rule out the possibility of asking for more resources from the government for taking costly and lengthy legal action against law-breakers.
Webb, who has been closely involved in the formation and development of the commission and in all aspects of its operations since the commencement of the Competition Ordinance in December last year , said the commission was making progress in raising public awareness of the law.
“We are certainly getting a lot of people interested in the competition ordinance,” she said, describing the past few months as “productive”.
The commission had received more “sophisticated” inquiries as the public had more understanding of the law, she said.
“Overall we are quite happy with the responses we have.”
But while the city was eagerly awaiting a landmark case of fighting a “big tiger”, especially in a high-profile trial that could maximise the deterrent effect, the competition chief urged Hongkongers to see the issue from a wider perspective.
“Taking people to court may not actually be the best remedy for anyone.”
She said the commission would definitely follow up the complaints it received.
“We have to take things slowly. We have to make sure that people are genuinely breaking the law and that they are continuing to do so.
“Then we will investigate properly and get proper evidence before we start taking people to court.”
When a competition issue was brought to the relevant party’s attention, that person would most likely rectify the conduct and solve the problem, Webb said.
In her view, it might not always be in the public interest to publicise details of the commission’s investigations.
“It’s a fine balance between being transparent and accountable for what you do, but also making sure you don’t prejudice your investigations by giving information out,” she explained, stressing the importance of not alerting wrongdoers to probes.
In future, the commission would continue to raise public awareness of the competition law and related issues by expanding its outreach to the public.
“We’ve got some plans to do more media events and exhibitions, and things about specific topics,” Webb said.
(South China Morning Post)