Fijian Competition Law

Objective of Competition?

The objective of competition law is to prohibit anticompetitive conducts or behaviour that unduly prevent, restrict or distort markets.

The principle aim of Competition Law is to eliminate or remove obstacles to competition in markets to ensure a competitive, efficient, fair and informed marketplace for consumers. Competition is a major tenet of market economies and business.

It is often associated with business competition, as most companies or entities are in competition with at least one other firm over the same group of customers.

Further, the competition inside a company is usually stimulated with the larger purpose of meeting and reaching higher quality of services or improved quality products that the company may produce or develop for consumers.

History of Competition Law in Fiji.

The inclusion of consumer and a limited competition issues in Fiji gained recognition with the enactment, implementation and enforcement of the Fair Trading Decree 1992.

This was amended in 1998, when a complimentary Commerce Act was introduced to regulate access to goods and services.

The Commerce Act 1998, was introduced as a result of economic policy changes in Fiji in the late 1980s to early 1990s, to promote effective competition and informed markets, encourage fair trading, protect consumers and businesses from restrictive trade practices and controls prices of regulated industries, and other markets where competition was lessened or limited.

In 2005, minor amendments to the Commerce Act 1998 was done which enabled more effective enforcement fo the Competition Law.

A Cabinet decision in 2010 resulted in the merger and repeal of three seperate legislations (Fair Trading Decree 1992, Counter Inflation Act 1973 and Commerce Act 1998) into a single legislation, forming Commerce Commission Decree 2010. The same was later entacted as Act. The Commerce Commission Act 2010 was in existence until July 2017, when it was amended and enacted as Fijian Competition & Consumer Commission Act 2010.

Objectives of Fijian Competition Law

The objective of the Commission under the Competition Law is to ensure that:

■Busi■esses understand and comply with their obligations under the Fijian Competition & Consumer Commisison Act 2010.

■Competitio■ between businesses is effective and fair.

■Cha■ges to market structure do not substantially increase market power for an entity or business, unless any likely detriment is outweighed by the overall benefit to the public.

■Barriers to entry and exit a market is minimised.

■Terms of purchase are fair and businesses or entities do not use their market power to tilt the terms of trade in their favour by detriment their customers.

Benefits of Competition Law

Competition is a very important mechanism for market economy, which encourages businesses or entites to provide consumer goods and services that consumers want at competitive prices.

There are considerable indications which shows the benefits of having effective and efficient competition in Fiji.

The common benefits resulting from the enforcement of Competition Law are:

■Greater production, allocative and dynamic efficiency, welfare and growth;

■Rewards good performance;

■Encourages entrepreneurial activity;

■Catayses entry of new firms in the market place;

■Promotes greater efficiency on the part of enterprises;

■Reduces cost of production;

■Improves competitiveness of enterprises;

■Sanctions poor performance by producers;

■Enhances competitiveness in international trade; and

■Ensures product quality, cheaper prices and passing on of cost savings to consumers.

SOURCE: FIJIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION