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Anand Raj, Cynthia Lian, Wen-Ly Chin, Aug 24, 2015
The Malaysian Competition Act 2010 was enacted in 2010 and came into force on January 1, 2012. The CA applies to all commercial activity within Malaysia as well as commercial activity outside Malaysia that has an effect on competition in any market in Malaysia. The Competition Commission of Malaysia (“MyCC”) was established under the Competition Commission Act 2010 (“CCA”), which was passed together with the CA.
In this regard, the enactment of the CA is consistent with the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, pursuant to which ASEAN member states had committed to introduce competition policy by 2015 and to “establish a network of authorities or agencies responsible for competition policy to service as a forum for discussing and coordinating competition policies.”
As will be noted from the discussion below, MyCC has not pursued many high profile cases, with the possible exception of MAS-Air Asia. The apparent inertia in dealing with cartelized conduct, relatively low fines for cartels, and what appears to be a disproportionate number of abuse of dominance investigations, have left some uncertainty and questions about the MyCC’s priorities and willingness to act. The role and involvement of Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (“MDTCC”) may also be something that will require clarity going forward.
