ISLAMABAD, 11 JULY 2020:

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) held an online workshop on the Guidance on Competition Compliance, with the senior management of Diamond Paint Industry (Pvt.) Limited with the purpose to promote voluntary compliance of the Competition Act, 2010 among business community. The workshop was attended from Diamond Paints by Mr. Shoaib Ahmed, CEO, Sana Ahmed, Director Marketing, Huzaifa Ahmed, Director Operations, Khuzaima Ahmed, Director Sales, Irfan Hassan, CFO, Irfan Yousaf, Manager Marketing, and Azam Niaz, Manager IT. CCP Member Advocacy Ms. Bushra Naz Malik chaired the session.

In her opening remarks, Bushra Naz Malik, said that CCP’s ‘Guidance on Competition Compliance,’ is an-easy-to-understand guide on the Competition Act, 2010. She said the guidance provides an operative and meaningful voluntary competition compliance programme for assisting businesses and other stakeholders to promote a culture of compliance and minimize their risk of involvement in competition law infringements and the costs resulting from anti-competitive behaviour.

Director General, Competition Policy, Ahmed Qadir while presenting the overview of the Competition Act, 2010 said that the Act is a state of the art law which gives the Competition Commission of Pakistan legal and investigative instruments and powers to engender free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity, enhance economic efficiency, and to protect consumers from anticompetitive behaviour.

Asfandyar Khattak, Director General (Advocacy and Media), while moderating the workshop said that the guidance on competition compliance explains the key concepts of competition and substantive provisions of the Competition Act with illustrations and easy examples. This will help stakeholders to fully understand the prohibitions under the competition law.

While highlighting Deceptive Marketing Practices, Riaz Hussain, Assistant Director, CCP said that use of any false or misleading information in advertisement of any goods or services, which can harm competitors as well as consumers, comes in category of deceptive marketing & infringement of Section 10 of Competition Act, 2010. He said Businesses must refrain from distribution of false or misleading information and fraudulently using another’s trademark, firm name, or product labelling or packaging that is capable of harming business interests of competitors. Such practices are subject practices to civil liability and penalties under the Competition law.

Aish Kamran Khan, Management Executive, CCP on two stages of implementation of Competition Compliance Programme said that to keep the key provisions of the Act and implementing rules and regulations in mind, businesses need to develop and manage an effective competition compliance programme. She said that the first stage of the compliance programme focuses on setting up a compliance programme, highlighting three key areas including commitment to compliance, appointment of Compliance Officer and staff training. Whereas, the second stage focused on the implementation of the compliance programme and looks at four key areas including risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation and review and evaluation.