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Competition

Fostering Competition in ASEAN: Primers for judges

 

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Competition cases are complex and often based on economic principles. The 2018 CLIP Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges are a series of information sheets designed to offer practical guidance to members of the judiciary when analysing competition cases in their courts.

These Primers bring together the Federal Court of Australia's very rich technical knowledge and first-hand experience with the OECD's international experience working with judges and knowledge of the ASEAN region and laws.

These Primers are part of the OECD strong engagement with Asia and, in particular with ASEAN, in helping to further the implementation of the ambitious ASEAN Competition Action Plan (ACAP) 2016-2025. This project was funded under the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) Competition Law Implementation Program.

The primers 

The 2018 Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges are available in several languages. 

English

Indonesian 

Lao

Khmer

Malay

Thai  

Vietnamese 

  

Primers per topic 

ASEAN Primers on Market Definition

Primer on market definition

This Primer provides a practical guide for judges focusing on challenges and issues faced in defining markets in competition law cases. It also looks at the evidence required when defining a relevant market and at a number of quantitative economic tools that can help with market definition.

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Primer on vertical restraints

This Primer provides a practical guide for judges focusing on challenges and issues faced in vertical restraints in competition law cases. It looks at different types of vertical restraints, as well as pro and anti-competitive effects.

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Economics for judges in the competition law context

This Primer narrows the communication gap between economists and courts. It presents the most most-used economic terms and concepts underlying competition law and the framework for assessing anticompetitive effects of agreements, unilateral conducts and mergers.

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Circumstantial evidence in the context of competition law

This Primer sets outs the role that circumstantial evidence frequently plays and it discusses the different types of evidence and their probative value.

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Expert evidence in the context of competition law cases

‌This Primer discusses the role that expert evidence can play in competition law cases and the main issues that such evidence raise. It offers insights into the experience of judges in Australia.

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Abuse of dominant position: what is it and how is it assessed?

This Primer discusses the concept of “substantial market power” and the types of evidence that may be used by judges to assess dominance and abuses.

 

Videos and testimonials

 » VIDEO: Frédéric Jenny talks about the Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges

 

» VIDEO: Justice Middleton, Federal Court of Australia

» VIDEO: Marcus Bezzi, ACCC

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“The Primers offer a first overview or port of call for the issues that courts will need to consider in most competition cases. I believe this collaborative work will prove very useful for judges in ASEAN as they will be increasingly faced with competition cases in the years to come.”

(Frédéric Jenny, Chairman of the Competition Committee of the OECD)

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 “It was a privilege to be able to draw on the expertise the FCA has acquired engaging with principles of both competition law and economics to develop, with input from the OECD, written tools to assist the diverse audience of judges in the ASEAN Member States. We trust that the Primers will prove a valuable and long enduring resource for judges in our region deciding competition law matters.”

(The Honorable Justice John Middleton, Federal Court of Australia).

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"The Primers contain materials that are important for judges to understand the economic aspects of competition cases. Written in plain English, the Primers are easy to understand for judges with no economics background.” 

(Justice Syamsul Maarif, Supreme Court of Indonesia)

 

Past OECD/Korea Policy Centre Competition Law Workshops for Asia-Pacific Judges

» July 2021: Virtual Seminar on Vertical restraints (w/ Malaysia Federal Court and Competition Appeal Tribunal of Malaysia)  

» February 2021: Virtual Seminar on Market Definition (w/ Supreme Court of the Philippines)

» May 2019: Seminar on Main Challenges in Adjudicating Competition Law Cases (Bangkog)

» October 2018: Circumstantial Evidence and Cartel Cases (Jakarta, Indonesia) (Read a summary in our newsletter)

» April 2017: Market Definition and Significant Market Power as Cornerstones of Competition Law (Manila, Philippines) (Read a summary)

» October 2016: Use of Competition Economics in the courtroom (Jeju, Korea)

» October 2015: The Use of Competition Economics (Busan, Korea)

» October 2014: Evidence in Cartel Proceedings (Seoul, Korea)

» October 2013: Competition Law Workshop for Judges (Gyeongju, Korea)  

» November 2012: Workshop for Judges on Abuse of Dominance (Beijing, China) (Read more in our 2012 Annual Report)

» November 2011: Competition Workshop for Judges in the Asian Region (Seoul, Korea) ()

 

A full list of events organised by the OECD/Korea Policy Centre, Competition Programme can be found here

 

Other OECD Initiatives with Competition Judges

The OECD has undertaken a number of roundtables with judges in the context of both the Competition Committee and the Global Forum on Competition. 

In 2017, the Global Forum on Competition held a roundtable with judges on Judicial perspectives on competition law, addressing various dimensions of the judicial adjudication of competition law. While recognising the differences that exist across jurisdictions, the discussion tried to elicit the main common challenges that judges face when applying competition law, and find ways to address those challenges. All materials related to this discussion can be found here.

Other relevant Competition Committee roundtables include: Presenting Complex Economic Theories to Judges, 2008, and Procedural Fairness: Competition Authorities, Courts and Recent Developments, 2011.

The OECD has also published reports concerning the courts’ role in the review of competition law cases such as, for instance, the 2016 report on The resolution of competition cases by specialised and generalist courts: Stocktaking of international experiences.

Finally, since 1996, seminars for national judges have been held in Mexico, Russia, Southern Africa and Brazil.  

RELATED LINKS

ASEAN Competition Action Plan (2016-2025)

ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC)

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Fostering Competition in ASEAN

Achieving more pro-competitive regulation in the logistics sector in ASEAN

Towards a level playing field in the logistics sector in ASEAN

Competition Law in Asia-Pacific: A Guide to Selected Jurisdictions

OECD Competition and Macroeconomic outcomes 

OECD Competition 

SEE ALSO

PLAYLIST: Key competition topics explained in few minutes

 

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