Parliament, Thursday, 30 August 2018 – The Portfolio Committee on Economic Development today completed day two of public hearings on the Competition Amendment Bill. The bill seeks to amend the Competition Act of 1988 so as to introduce provisions that clarify and improve the determination of prohibited practices relating to restrictive horizontal and vertical practices, abuse of dominance and price discrimination and to strengthen the penalty regime and to introduce greater flexibility in the granting of exemption which promote transformation and growth, to strengthen the role of market inquiries and merger processes in the promotion of competition and economic transformation through addressing the structures and de-concentration of markets, to protect and stimulate the growth of small and medium businesses and firms owned and controlled by historically disadvantaged persons while at the same time protecting and promoting employment, employment security and worker ownership.

Furthermore, the bill seeks to make provision for the National Executive intervention in respect of mergers that affect the national security interests of the country and to mandate the Competition Commission to act in accordance with the results of a market inquiry, to amend the process by which market inquiries are initiated and promote greater efficiency regarding the conduct of market inquiries. Lastly, the bill provides the Competition Commission with the powers to conduct impact studies on prior decisions and to promote the administrative efficiency of the Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal.

On 28 -29 August 2018, the Committee heard from private individuals, academia, economists, business, non-governmental organisations and trade unions amongst others who made representations on the bill

Most speakers were in full support of the provisions of the bill and made suggestions to the committee on possible improvements to provisions of the bill relating to: protection of small, medium and micro enterprises; development and participation of the HDI’s in the economy; abuse of dominance; buying power; price discrimination; national security, initiating and conducting market inquiries; penalty regime and review and appeal provisions. The committee was also requested to consider developmental imperatives of the state including, transformation of the economy, industrial expansion and job creation.

The Chairperson of the Economic Development Committee, Ms Elsie Coleman has granted additional time to participating stakeholders to fine tune their submissions to indicate which part/clause of the bill they would like amended.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Elsie Coleman said that all inputs will be collated and considered and together with the legal teams it is hoped that a draft will be ready before the end of October. The chairperson thanked all the stakeholders for their participation and commitment to making our democracy work for us.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, MS ELSIE MMATHULARE COLEMAN.

For media enquiries of interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer. 

Name: Sureshinee Govender
Cell: 081 704 1109
E-mail: sugovender@parliament.gov.za