The Competition Commission Brunei Darussalam (CCBD) through its Executive Secretariat held an advocacy session on Competition Act, Chapter 253 to the officers and staffs from the Industry and Business Ecosystem Division, Ministry of Finance and Economy. The session held last Tuesday was part of CCBD’s communication plan to advocate about the Competition Act in the effort to enhance awareness and compliance with the Act among key stakeholders.

The Competition Act is an act to promote and protect competition in markets in Brunei Darussalam, to promote economic efficiency, economic development and consumer welfare. The Act prohibits business practices that restrict competition process in a market. The three key conducts prohibited under the Competition Act are Section 11: Anti-Competitive Agreements, Section 21: Abuse of Dominant Position and Section 23: Anti-Competitive Mergers.

The Section 11 prohibition on Anti-Competitive Agreements or also known as cartels, which is a prohibition in the Act that has been enforced since beginning of January 2020, includes the agreements between two or more businesses to fix price, share market, rig bids and limit supply. Businesses are expected to compete and make their business decisions independently, rather that engage in such unlawful agreements. The session had also touched on the leniency regime under the Section 44 of the Act, which incentivise businesses that partake in a cartel activity to admit its involvement and disclose information about the prohibited conducts and provide full cooperation to the CCBD, in exchange for up to a full immunity from the penalty.

The session highlighted that a business holding dominant position in a market does not necessarily infringe the section 21 on Abuse of Dominant Position under the Act. Infringements only occurs when such business abuses its dominant position by, among others, imposing predatory pricing or practising price discrimination.

Predatory pricing describes a situation where a dominant business price its goods lower than its costs for a long period of time, with an intention to drive competitors out of the market, which will eventually enable it to hold most of the market share. Another example of abusive conduct is when a dominant business practises price discrimination, which is when it applies dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, which will then place the latter at a competitive disadvantage.

The advocacy session was delivered by Yang Mulia Dayang Nur Izzawanie binti Haji Zainin, Economic Officer at the Executive Secretariat of CCBD Unit. Also present during the session was Yang Mulia Dayang Hjh Rena Azlina binti Dato Paduka Hj Abdul Aziz, the Head of Executive Secretariat of CCBD.

The CCBD welcomes any request for dialogue or briefing on the Competition Act, which can be directed to the Executive Secretariat of CCBD through email at exec.secretariat@ccbd.gov.bn. For further information, visit CCBD’s website at www.ccbd.gov.bn.