Download Competition Law and Consumer Protection: Interconnected Goals for Consumer Welfare and more Slides Competition Law and Policy in PDF only on Docsity! Competition and Consumer Protection Docsity.com COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION CONTENTS: • COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY AIM AT CONSUMER WELFARE • COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION OFTEN RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SAME AGENCY • CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS HAVE AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN CREATING A COMPETITION CULTURE Docsity.com COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION OFTEN PLACED UNDER THE SAME AGENCY • Many Competition Laws cover both competition and consumer protection issues; • When separate laws exist, both are often administered by the same agency; • Consumer welfare is the ultimate objective of competition law, but it needs to be complemented by specific consumer protection laws dealing with issues outside the scope of Competition Policy and Law. Docsity.com COMPETITION LAWS OFTEN COVER BOTH COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION • Apart from indirect consumer benefits discussed above, some competition laws refer to consumer issues, such as: – Obligation to indicate prices; – Prohibition of resale price maintenance – Prohibition of « bait-selling »; – Prohibition of « pyramid-schemes »; – Provisions on misleading and false advertising, etc. Docsity.com WHEN TWO LAWS EXIST, THEY ARE OFTEN THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SAME AGENCY • Some agencies cover both competition and consumer protection: eg the USFTC and the OFT in the UK; • In some countries, such as Peru, the authority (INDECOPI) is in charge of many issues, including IPRs; and • In other countries, the competition authority has exclusive competition responsibility, eg the German Bundeskartellamt. Docsity.com THE BENEFITS OF COMPETITION POLICY ARE NOT ALWAYS OBVIOUS FOR CONSUMERS AT LARGE Consumers feel threatened by globalization and open markets: • Low-quality dumping or excessive prices; • International competition may challenge status-quo and restructure entire sectors; • Before having a chance to benefit as consumers, employees fear for their jobs; • It is hard to trade-off promissed long-term benefits for short-term hardship. Docsity.com CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS NEED FIRST TO BE CONVINCED OF THE BENEFITS OF COMPETITION To create a competition culture within the public, consumer organizations need first to clarify essential issues: • They need to be trained and to be convinced that competition is not going to kill jobs without creating more employment opportunities; • That it is not going to downgrade work conditions and salaries accross the board, but rather improve income per capita; • That open markets with competition law are not going to wipe-out entire local industries, but develop much more profitable new ones. Docsity.com CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS ARE ESSENTIAL TO CREATE A BOTTOM-UP APPROACH IN FAVOR OF COMPETITION • Much has been said about « Competition advocacy » by competition authorities, including transparency of decisions, capacity building and technical assistance for Government and business alike, as well as Judges and the media; • This needs to be supported by a broad based effort to train consumer organizations to train trainers and create a sound pro-competition opinion within public opinion. Docsity.com
