Muscat: Pursuant to the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law under the Royal Decree No (67/2014), the minister of Commerce, Qais bin Mohammed al-Yousef, has issued the Ministerial decision No (18/2020) promulgating the executive regulations of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law.
Article (1) of the ministerial decision stipulated that the provisions shall have effect in relation to the executive regulation of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law, while article (2) stipulated that any provision contradicting or conflicting with the provisions of the attached regulation is hereby repealed. Article (3) stipulated that this decision shall be published in the Gazette and shall come into force from the date following its publication.
The Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law aim at regulating the freedom of practicing any economic activity, stabilizing the principles of the market rules and freedom of pricing in such manner that the same shall not restrict the integral competition, prevent the same or be negatively affected thereby.
MoCIIP clarified that the executive regulations of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law indicates that when determining the relevant market that is mentioned in the law, it shall determine two elements, namely the concerned products and the geographical scope of the studied case.
It pointed out that a number of criteria stipulated in this executive regulation shall be taken into account when detraining the above two mentioned elements, while the relevant market varies from case to case, in accordance with the complaint or the studied case.
MoCIIP emphasized that the dominance over the relevant market can take place in two cases, namely if the person’s share exceeds 35% during a certain period of time, and the capability of a person to have an effective impact on the prices of products, or on the volume of supply of the products to the relevant market, along with the lack of competition during a certain period of time.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment promotion also pointed out that the executive regulations of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law confirmed that the monopoly concentration can take place when any form of control to be imposed by any person or group of people directly or indirectly over the quantity or the price for any goods or service in such manner that the freedom of the competition is restricted or the same was adversely affected, through determining the prices, imposing resale prices, implementing less than cost pricing, or implementing a predatory pricing method, or dividing the relevant market into quotas, preventing the supplying of alternative products to the relevant market, the absence, limitation, or weakening of competition, and the existence of economic links between the concerned products that enable the monopolists to operate independently without competition.
The executive regulations of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law emphasized that those who would like to perform any action may result in an economic concentration, in accordance with the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law, shall submit a written request via a form prepared for this purpose, including the number of data, information, and documents required to complete the studying of the concentration request. It should be noted that all the submitted documents should be in Arabic, and if they are in a foreign language, they should be accompanied by a certified Arabic translation.
The executive regulations pointed out that the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion shall inspect the application for approving an economic concentration within a maximum period of 90 days, taking into account a number of factors, including the impact of the economic concentration on competition, the level of actual or potential competition in the market, the ease with which the arrival of new competitors to the relevant market, the obstacles that prevent the involvement of new competitors in the market, the extent of the impact of the economic concentration on the prices of goods and services in the relevant market, innovation, creativity and technical efficiency in the market, and the potential contribution of the economic concentration in encouraging investment, exports, building national capabilities, and interest, the potential of providing new jobs, in-country value-added, and the impact of economic concentration on consumer interests.
The ministry may request any additional data it deems necessary to study the submitted request, as well as it may hold meetings with the applicants or their representatives.
The executive regulation indicated that the concerned person has the right to appeal to the minister against a decision issued by the ministry to reject or cancel the application for approving an economic concentration within 60 days from the date of his notification of the rejection decision, and after paying the prescribed fees.
The executive regulations of the Law affirmed that employees who have been granted the status of a judicial seizure have the right to enter the places of work of persons subject to inspection in order to review the records, documents of the establishments, their appendices, and the offices belonging to the persons subject to inspection, and to obtain copies thereof, to take necessary measures to collect information, investigate any person suspected of committing any violation of the provisions of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law and its executive regulation.
The executive regulations of the Competition Protection and Monopoly Prevention Law also stipulated that without prejudice to the penalties prescribed in the law, an administrative fine of RO 5,000 shall be imposed on anyone who violates the provisions of executive regulation of the competition protection and monopoly law, while the fine will be doubled in the event of a repetition of the violation.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
