The enforcement of competition legislation is not an easy task. Indeed, the majority of national competition enforcement authorities in developing countries are having difficulties in prioritising the cases to deal with amongst a large number of anti-competitive practices. To this effect, I plan to conduct a survey, again of selected competition agencies from (30) developing countries, asking them about their experiences in identifying the factors to be considered in prioritising work, allocating resources and identifying the most damaging practices. In the selection process, an attempt should be made to get a cross-section of country types that reflect differing political and judicial systems, size of economies and level of rule of law in the society, since all of these would impact on the survey results. I will also look at the current literature assessing competition agencies. In addition, I will look at how countries with more developed antitrust laws prioritise cases.
Work on the survey will be split into two main phases. The first phase will focus on the design and selection of questions for inclusion in the questionnaire. The second phase will consist of response data analysis and paper production. With the help of these and other resources, I ultimately aspire to bring together the political and economic challenges faced by competition and regulatory authorities in developing countries in prioritising anticompetitive practices, unfair trade practices and abuse of dominance.
The survey findings will argue that the priorities of competition in each developing country will vary depending on its underlying regulatory infrastructure, the perception of the role of competition in its political and economic culture, and its resource availability.
