Warning that commission could stifle online growth in South Africa
final report on online markets in South Africa is “highly interventionist” and will stifle economic growth if implemented, leading competition lawyers have warned.
In 2018, the provisions of the Competition Act relating to market inquiries and the commission’s powers were amended to address the supposed historical “toothlessness” of market inquiries generally. Aukema said it could be argued that the commission has overextended its reach with the remedies contained in the online markets report. “There is no real legal obligation on the likes of Google to abide by the remedies.”However, he said this is “quite a robust view”. The counterpoint is that it’s “unlikely the legislator went through all the trouble to amend the act to give market powers more teeth without doing so. But we certainly think the position is not clear.
However, there have been extensive engagements with stakeholders during the process and certain of the remedies may in fact be the outcome of negotiations between the parties and the commission, and so may not be challenged.specialist competition lawyer Lebohang Mabidikane said the nature of the remedies imposed in the final report demonstrates a “highly interventionalist approach by the commission”.
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