Canada to Lead International Competition Network for Third Straight Year

OTTAWA, June 26, 2003 — Canada’s Commissioner of Competition, Konrad von Finckenstein Q.C., will lead the International Competition Network (ICN) for a third consecutive year. The eighty member strong organization of competition authorities confirmed his re-appointment today, as Chair of the ICN Steering Group, following the successful completion of its second annual conference in Merida, Mexico.

“The ICN focuses on the key issues affecting all competition players,” said Mr. von Finckenstein, “Compatibility of merger review regimes is of vital interest to developed countries and large corporations, while the role of advocacy and capacity building is of strategic importance to developing countries.”

The ICN is a project-oriented and consensus based organization. Its membership is open to national and multinational competition agencies responsible for the enforcement of antitrust laws. Antitrust experts from the private sector, academia and other international organizations work with ICN members to produce recommended practice proposals and substantive reports to enhance convergence between the laws, processes, and policies of different authorities. The recommended practice proposals are non-binding but, once adopted by the ICN, they form a baseline for sound antitrust enforcement practice. Since its inception in October 2001, the ICN has focused its efforts on merger review in a multi-jurisdictional context, the role of competition advocacy, and how to create effective capacity building programs for agencies in developing and transition economies.

"We have made real progress in determining how competition authorities should bring about substantive and procedural convergence on a global scale," said Mr. von Finckenstein, "The ultimate beneficiaries of our work are consumers and businesses throughout the world.”

This week, during the three-day Merida Conference, ICN members adopted seven Recommended Practices: on jurisdictional nexus, notification thresholds, timing of notification, merger review periods, requirements for initial notifications, transparency, and review of merger control provisions. These supplement the eight Guiding Principles for merger review that were adopted at last year’s ICN conference. The ICN’s merger work also produced comprehensive papers on merger guidelines and initial papers on investigative techniques.

The competition advocacy discussions focused on three new reports, concerning model advocacy provisions, sectoral studies, and practical techniques, respectively. This work emphasized the importance of advocacy to the ability of competition authorities to promote procompetitive reform within government.

The capacity building discussions dealt with a comprehensive report on three closely-related topics: the case for competition law in developing and transition economies; the challenges of building effective competition agencies in such economies; and experiences in providing technical assistance to competition agencies in such economies. ICN members emphasized that capacity building work was extremely important in fostering a global culture of competition.

In addition to the continuing program of work examining multijurisdictional merger review, and capacity building, the ICN established a working group on the role of competition enforcement in regulated sectors. The next ICN annual conference will be held in the Republic of Korea in April 2004.

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