Myanmar Government forms Competition Commission
20 December 2018
By Notification 106 of 2018 dated 31 October 2018, the Myanmar Government has formed the Competition Commission further to the Competition Law, which came into force in February 2017. The Notification sets out the appointed members of the Competition Commission, with the current Minister of Commerce acting as Chairperson. It also states that the Commission’s duties and powers will be as stipulated in the Competition Law.
The Competition Law prescribes a wide range of duties and powers for the Competition Commission, from setting merger thresholds to overseeing the Investigations Committee, a body with a broad range of investigative and prosecution powers. The comprehensive list set out in Part V of the Competition Law includes:
- Exempting essential industries and small and medium enterprises from compliance with the Competition Law;
- Specifying market share, supply, amount of capital, number of shares and magnitude of owned property relating to a business which are detrimental to competition due to dominance, and purchase, acquisition or merger among businesses of full or partial ownership of a business by another business;
- Setting thresholds to determine when a business will be deemed to be operating as a monopoly; and
- Directing businesses to reduce their market share to a prescribed amount where the Competition Commission determines that its market share harms competition.