Competition Act 2010: the issues and challenges

It took more than 20 years of efforts and political will to pass the general competition law in Malaysia. Various models were considered but shelved, culminating in the adoption of the European model with such familiar terms as abuse of dominant position. Despite the passing of two Acts to provide for the substantive law and establish a competition commission to enforce it, various issues remain open, including the objective the law is intended to serve and the construction to be afforded to the substantive provisions. Certain areas were left out of the law, including two sectors and merger control. In an economy where there are many concurrent directorships the law omits interlocking directorships. The scope of the law is also open to debate, with such issues as the interaction between the general and sectoral competition laws, the locus standi of final consumers vis-à-vis the enterprises that infringe the law. Issues aside, the newly established commission is also faced with challenges, including its financial and policy independence, and its ability to attract subject matter experts and deal with complex legal and economic analysis. Most important of all, the commission would have to build its own competition jurisprudence with a Malaysian flair. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2015