It has been one year since the enforcement of the Malaysian Competition Act and the Malaysian Competition Commission (MyCC) is strongly flexing its muscles and hardening its approach to enforcement.
In a speech marking the opening of the Commission’s new headquarters, Malaysia’s Trade Minister YB Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yakoob advised that “the MyCC will be gearing up for a more aggressive stance in 2013 in ensuring the Competition Act is adhered to”.
Confirming this position, Chairman of the MyCC stated that “enforcement will definitely be strengthened”. In particular, he stated that there will be an increased focus on investigating bid rigging as it is considered to be one of the most common antitrust problems experienced across all sectors in most countries.
MyCC’s Chief Executive Officer, Shila Dorai Raj, has also advised the media that in 2013 MyCC’s “enforcement activities will shift gear, where we will focus on bid rigging, trade associations and their practices, and of course the MyCC will no longer adopt a soft approach to enforcement”. While acknowledging that bid rigging may be a fairly new issue in Malaysia, she confirmed that the MyCC has held seminars to educate government officials and procurement officers to detect bid rigging. The focus in 2013 will be to step up the existing education efforts in order to raise further awareness in the hope that it will result in tip offs to the MyCC of bid rigging or price fixing conduct.
The MyCC’s message is clear; the gloves are off and it’s not afraid to fight.
