Legislation: More time for input on new competition regulations

The deadline for comment on draft buyer power abuse and price discrimination regulations giving practical effect to amended provisions in the Competition Act has been extended to 22 November. Gazetted last month, once operational the proposed new regulations are expected to facilitate the market participation of ‘small and medium businesses and firms controlled or owned by historically disadvantaged persons’, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.

Provisions in the draft buyer power regulations ‘designate the sectors of dominant firms which are prohibited to require from or impose on a supplier unfair prices or other trading conditions’; prescribe the ‘factors and benchmarks’ to be used in ‘determining whether prices and other trading conditions imposed are unfair’; and, in respect of firms owned or controlled by historically disadvantaged persons, prescribe the benchmarks to be used in determining the firms to which section 8(4) of the amended Competition Act applies. This is noting that sub-section 8(4) explicitly prohibits the abuse of market dominance in the context of dealings with ‘a small or medium business or a firm controlled or owned by historically disadvantaged persons’.

The draft price discrimination regulations seek to prescribe the benchmarks to be used in determining the application of sub-section 9(1)(a)(ii) of the Act to ‘firms owned and controlled by historically disadvantaged persons’; and the ‘factors and benchmarks’ to be used in determining whether a dominant firm’s action can be construed as ‘price discrimination that impedes the (market) participation’ of such enterprises. Subsection 9(1)(a)(ii) explicitly prohibits price discrimination in the context of dealings with ‘a small or medium business or a firm controlled or owned by historically disadvantaged persons’.