ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) initiated 10 inquiries between January and March pertaining to cartels and trade abuses and five relating to deceptive marketing practices.

It also issued 24 exemptions to agreements that affect competition, and held 14 hearings, including a public hearing.

The participants of the 21st meeting of the Competition Consultative Group (CCG), held here on Thursday at the CCP head office, were briefed on the CCP’s performance.

The meeting was informed that a number of enforcement initiatives have been taken to address competition concerns in various important sectors of the economy.

The inquiries included looking into the reasons for unreasonable price-hike of essential commodities; why global decrease in petroleum prices was not reflected in the price of transportation of people and goods; possible cartelisation in LPG, cement, and poultry feed sectors.

The CCP cleared 16 pre-merger applications in the quarter. Out of these, two pertaining to GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis were taken to a second phase review to analyse competition concerns before being cleared with certain structural remedies. The participants were given a detailed presentation on the GSK-Novartis vaccine merger.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2015

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