Virtual consultation for Merger Control and Review Bill begins Friday
Competition Policy Officer, Anil Sukhdeo
Competition Policy Officer, Anil Sukhdeo

THE Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC) will this Friday commence virtual consultations on the draft Merger Control and Review Bill, and is calling on public and private stakeholders to review it and submit their written comments.

Another round of virtual consultations will be held the following Friday, June 18. Stakeholders will have up to June 21 to submit their comments to cpu@ccac.gov.gy., the CCAC Competitions Policy Unit (CPU)’s email address.

The Bill, which is intended to give the CCAC oversight and control over mergers and acquisitions between companies, seeks to regulate those transactions, as, if not done, the end result could be harmful to competition, and negatively affect the interest of consumers and the economy.

The Bill also aims to create a business environment that promotes, maintains and encourages competition and enhances economic efficiency in production, trade and commerce. When enacted, the Bill will work alongside the existing Competitions and Fair Trading Act (CFTA) to regularise the competition landscape of businesses in Guyana.
“The mergers and acquisition legislation is a missing link, or missing piece of legislation for complete coverage under the competitions law,” CCAC Competition Policy Officer, Anil Sukhdeo told the Guyana Chronicle on Monday.

“Competition law has three pillars on which it stands, and mergers and acquisition is one of those. We already have legislation in the form of the CFTA 2006 for the other two, which are the basis of dominance and anti-competitive agreement,” Sukhdeo said. “The CFTA 2006 is in charge of enforcing two of the three aspects of competitions law,” he added.

Sukhdeo highlighted that the proposed Bill is an important part in the legal protection of consumers in Guyana from the risks of anti-competitive situations.

“What the Bill does is, if you have a firm or business in Guyana and someone wants to come in and buy over your business, the Bill gives the competitions authority [the CCAC] oversight over that transaction. We would have the power to ensure that [the acquisition] is not going to lead to a monopoly or anti-competitive effect, or change the structure significantly where customers lose in the end,” Sukhdeo noted.

He added: “We examine the likely benefits, and potential threats of the proposed merger acquisition. We would then make an assessment of whether or not the benefits outweigh the potential threats and say either say yay or nay to the proposed acquisition.”

However, this new Bill will not give the CCAC oversight over areas such as the telecommunications and other utility companies, which are already being legally monitored by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The Bill will also not cover banks and other financial institutions, for which oversight would fall under the Bank of Guyana.

Sukhdeo explained that protecting consumers against mergers and acquisitions is particularly important in the case where big corporations or businesses may try to buy out other businesses to create a monopoly in a particular sector.

“When we have monopoly, the first thing a monopolist does is raise their prices, and it’s the consumers who lose when that happens. So we are trying to counteract those threats, and weight them in our analysis,” he explained.

Following consultations, the proposed Bill will be handed over to Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Waldron, for her to take to Cabinet. It will eventually be sent to the National Assembly to be adopted into law.

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