PCC increases antitrust fines by 10%

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on Monday raised by 10 percent the amount of fines slapped on antitrust violators to keep track with inf lationary adjustments.

Under Memorandum Circular 21-001, the PCC increased the penalties for anticompetitive agreements, abuses of dominance, anticompetitive mergers and violations of compulsory merger notification by 10 percent. According to the agency, the competition law provides it the authority to adjust administrative penalties every 5 years to maintain their real value.

“Indexing the value of imposable fines to inflation ensures that the competition law’s sanctions maintain sufficient deterrent effect,” said PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan.

For cartels, abuses of dominance and prohibited mergers, the maximum administrative fine for the first offense was raised to P110 million, from P100 million originally. Likewise, the maximum fine for late merger notifications was raised to P2.2 million, from P2 million.

The adjustment also includes fines for offenses committed in the course of PCC’S competition enforcement and merger review, such as the supply of incorrect or misleading information and failure to comply with an antitrust order.

The fine increase will take effect on February 9, 15 days after the publication of the circular. It will only apply to violations made in the course of the order’s effectivity.

While the circular changes the range of fines, the computation of actual fines are determined by several factors, such as the gravity and duration of the infringement, profits derived from the illegal conduct and consumer harm.

“Along with effective detection and prosecution of infringements, increasing PCC’S fines is meant to deter cartelistic and abusive business practices that take advantage of consumers amid the pandemic,” Balisacan added.

Since 2016, the PCC has imposed a total of P162.5 million fines on breaching entities.