The ICN’s Recommended Practices on Competition Assessment: Reflections on Measuring Competitive Harm

CPI ICN Column edited by Maria Coppola (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)

The ICN’s Recommended Practices on Competition Assessment: Reflections on Measuring Competitive Harm – Alden F. Abbott (Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Heritage Foundation)¹

The International Competition Network’s (ICN) adoption of 13 “Recommended Practices on Competition Assessment”² (CARPs) at its 2014 Annual Conference in Marrakech presents competition agencies (CAs) worldwide with both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity stems from being able to rely upon new broad-based international consensus support for reining in pernicious government restraints on competition. The challenge comes from the practical difficulties inherent in applying the principles embodied in the CARPs to factually complex and often politically sensitive government programs. This column attempts to offer guidance in areas that the CARPs have not addressed, in particular, how to measure the competitive harm of a law, regulation, or policy.

The CARPs delineate in orderly fashion a multi-dimensional framework CAs may consult in developing and applying their competition advocacy program. Significantly, in addition to describing the sorts of regulatory restrictions that harm welfare and competition, the CARPs provide helpful insights on the sort of policymaking environment that can advance competition principles; on building alliances and relationships that can advance CAs