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Case Prioritisation Vipin Naugah, Legal Executive Date: 16 October 2013 ICN Cartel Workshop 2013 Mini Plenary 1

Case Prioritisation Vipin Naugah, Legal Executive Date: 16 October 2013 ICN Cartel Workshop 2013 Mini Plenary 1. Outline. Evolving priorities of young competition agencies The Mauritian Experience . Evolving priorities of young authorities. Capacity building Advocacy

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Case Prioritisation Vipin Naugah, Legal Executive Date: 16 October 2013 ICN Cartel Workshop 2013 Mini Plenary 1

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  1. Case Prioritisation Vipin Naugah, Legal Executive Date: 16 October 2013 ICN Cartel Workshop 2013 Mini Plenary 1

  2. Outline • Evolving priorities of young competition agencies • The Mauritian Experience

  3. Evolving priorities of young authorities • Capacity building • Advocacy • instilling a competition culture in the business community • Initiate consumers as being the trigger of competition • Interaction with sector regulators & Govt • Complaints • Dealing with more complex matters

  4. Prioritisation Ordinarily, priority setting refers to the possibility of an agency to deal with those cases which are most harmful to competition. There are two ways how prioritisation can be effected:- • An agency may have the power to decide to deal only with those cases which it deems a priority and to set aside those cases which it does not consider a priority. • An agency may be able to deal with its cases in order of priority but ultimately has the obligation to deal with or at least examine all cases. In the latter case the competition authority may be able to decide not to investigate on grounds of lack of priority.

  5. Competition Commission of Mauritius • The CCM employs about 22 employees, of which 12 are investigative staff • Annual budget of about one million euros • Mandated to investigate restrictive business practices- cartels, monopoly abuse and mergers.

  6. Competition Act 2007 • Section 30 of the Act gives the Executive Director the power to: • either on his initiative, or on the complaint of any person, open an investigation into a suspected breach of the Act. • undertake general studies on the effectiveness of competition in individual sectors of the economy in Mauritius • Section 51(1) • Where the Executive Director has reasonable grounds to believe that a restrictive business practice is occurring or about to occur, he shall investigate, or cause to be investigated, such restrictive business practice

  7. Setting priorities • In considering the priority to give to different areas of CCM activity, we consider three broad classes of criteria: • Impact • Strategic importance • Resources

  8. Procedure adopted • Issues Register Meeting • Held every month amongst senior staff to determine cases to enquire upon or investigate. • Issues chosen from complaints, or internally generated issues • No Further Action (NFA), • Proceed to enquiry (PTE), • Long term hold (LTH), • Medium term hold(MTH), • Short term hold (STH).

  9. Collusive agreements (Cartels) • Overriding priority to cartels • Like other competition authorities, the CCM regards deliberate price-fixing as the most serious offence under competition law.

  10. Prioritising cartels • A cartel unit within the CCM • Capacity building for cartels • Attendance to workshops such as ICN Cartel Workshop • Training in IT Forensics with experts from South Africa • Training in Reid Interviewing and Interrogation Technique • Leniency Policy

  11. Ex-officio cartel cases • Professional Architects Council Rules- • The rules prohibited Architects from competing on prices by means of reduction in prices or other inducements. • Investigation initiated by the Executive Director under section 41 ( collusive agreements) • Inv closed after decision was taken by the relevant ministry to amend the Rules to comply with the Competition Act. • Commingling of Pools (tote betting) • Case came in as a merger guidance, but the CCM found that the commingling agreement contained terms which could infringe the collusive agreement prohibition provisions of the Competition Act. • Inv closed after undertakings ( commitments) were given by the merging parties.

  12. Cartel investigation in Chicken industry • First case where dawn raid was conducted • Involved substantial financial expenses for IT forensics conducted by a South African IT Forensic expert firm. • High Impact case with strategic importance. • Case on-going.

  13. Going forward • So far we have been more reactive than proactive • Defining areas of priority • Markets which have larger impact on the society • Markets that raise the cost of doing business in Mauritius

  14. THANK YOU!!

  15. www.ccm.mu

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