LAW ENFORCEMENT CO-OPERATION: CASE STUDIES REGARDING REGIONAL COOPERATION BOTH

CURRENTLY IN PLACE OR ANTICIPATED

By Leya M. MwapeLegal Assistant - Competition and Consumer

Protection Commission – Zambia

Sixth Annual African Consumer Protection Dialogue Conference

Lilongwe, September 2014

Competition & Consumer Protection Commission

Outline of Presentation:

-Introduction

-Legal Framework under the CCPA that provide for Regional Enforcement Cooperation

-Case Studies regarding Regional Cooperation currently in Place

-Anticipated Regional Cooperation

-Conclusion04/20/23

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Introduction

Legal Framework for Regional Enforcement Co-operation Under CCPA.

Section 65 of the Act provides for Enforcement of Competition Law at a request of foreign competition Authority stating that:

65(1) “ subject to the provisions of subsection (2), a foreign competition authority may, where it has reasonable grounds to believe that anti-competitive practices in Zambia are damaging competition in the country of the authority, request the Commission to investigate and make an appropriate determination

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Conti….......

(2) Subsection (1) applies –

(a)To requests from other members of the Common Market for

Eastern and southern Africa or the Southern African Development Community by virtue of the Obligations assumed by Zambia, towards these organisations.

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Case Studies on Regional Enforcement Cooperation – Competition Law

The Zambia Competition authority has continued to work with Regional Competition Authorities in respect to the enforcement of its Law.

Particularly, the Commission in its investigations of excessive - pricing in various manufacturing sectors (investigations ongoing) obtained information from Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana on the average price of the commodities in question in those jurisdiction and compare with what was prevailing in our jurisdiction.

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Regional Enforcement Cooperation

with COMESA

•The Commission has also collaborated with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in so far as providing input for mergers with a regional dimension is concerned. Some of these mergers are;

The Acquisitions of superswift Zambia limited by Fedex

•This was a COMESA merger where fedex corporation was acquiring the Assets of Supa Swift Zambia, Superswift Malawi and Supa Swift Swaziland.

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Conti• The Target firms were also franchise holders of the Acquiring

firms in the affected countries and they conducted business under the Fedex brand.

• The Commission using information from COMESA obtained third party views from the Zambia Market which were submitted to COMESA for assessment purposes

• Proposed Merger between Torre Industrial Holdings Limited and Control Instruments Group Limited

• The Commission received a notification from the COMESA Competition Commission regarding the proposed acquisition of 64.46% of the issued share capital of Control Instrument Group Limited (CI) by Torre Industrial Holdings Proprietary Limited

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Conti……..• The Commission obtained third party views from the market

players which were thereafter submitted to COMESA. These include Malawi, Botswana and Tanzania

• The Commission’s position was that the transaction was not likely to raise any competition concerns in Zambia even though both parties to the transaction are presently in Zambia. This was because the acquiring party Torre is only present in Zambia through Tractor Grader Suppliers Copperbelt Proprietary Limited (“TGS”) which appears not to be aggressive on the Zambian Market.

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Regional Enforcement Co-operation – consumer Protection

•Similarly, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has co-operated with a number of Competition Authorities in the region in enforcement of consumer protection violations.

•Malawi for instance, has requested Zambia for Tribunal decisions delivered by the Competition and consumer Protection Tribunal (Tribunal) on cases bordering on food safety.

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Anticipated Regional Cooperation•Proposed Memorandum of Understanding between CCPC and the south African Competition Commission

•The Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (“MCTI”) of Zambia and the Department of Trade and Industry (“DTI”) of the Republic of South Africa established a Joint Working Group, to revise the implementation matrix to the 2009 MoU between the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic of Zambia as well as to discuss any other issues aimed at strengthening trade and investment between the two countries.

• The role of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (“the Commission”) in the MoU in conjuction with

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Conti…………

•the Competition commission of South Africa and the National Consumer Commission is develop industrial and technical cooperation in the subjects of consumer welfare and competition policy between the two countries.

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Conti………Workshop between the Competition

Authorities Zambia- Zimbabwe

• The Zambia Competition Commission (CCPC) and the Zimbabwe Competition and Tariff Commission (ZCTC) are planning for workshops to be hosted in both countries.

• The aim of these workshops is to share experiences on case investigations in the two countries as well as International best practice on Mergers, Restrictive Business Practices, cartels.

• The first of such workshop is scheduled for October in Siavonga Zambia, with a follow-up one to be held in Zimbabwe at a later date. Planning and logistics for these workshops is still underway

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Conti……Provision of internship to Employees from

Novel competition Authorities

The Commission has also continued to offer technical assistance to newly formed Competition Authorities through offering attachments to staff of the Competition Authorities. These include Malawi, Botswana, Rwanda with the newly recruited coming from Ethiopia

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Conclusion The Commission has indeed benefited from the

regional enforcement cooperation currently in place and looks forward to having many more of such collaborations across the region

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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!!

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