May Fong Cheong, Feb 13, 2013
The preceding two years have been instrumental for Malaysia in the area of competition law. After many years of germination, the Fair Trade Practices Policy, which was approved in 2006, finally evolved into competition legislation. In 2010, the Malaysian Parliament passed the Competition Act 2010 (“the CA”) and the Competition Commission Act 2010 (“the CCA”). The CA has only been in force since January 1, 2012, while the CCA became effective a year before. The Chairperson of the Competition Commission, a former judge of Malaysia’s apex court, was appointed in April 2011 with nine other Commissioners appointed the following month.
Within the relatively short span, there have been significant developments. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief introduction to the competition law regime in Malaysia and the developments that have taken place in the last two years.
