To strengthen the enforcement of competition laws, the Philippine Competition Commission has acquired the services of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for technical assistance to develop various operational guidelines regarding antitrust laws.
Dongbin Shin, KFTC director for Deliberation Management, and Jihoon Park from the KFTC International Mergers and Acquisitions Division were deployed to the PCC from 18 July to 22 August for the KFTC Expert Dispatch Program.
Shin was assigned to the PCC’s Competition Enforcement Office, and Park to the Mergers and Acquisitions Office.
Codified rules
The PCC said in a statement, that the KFTC consultants focused on developing codified rules of procedure, enhancing the PCC’s bid-rigging detection system, and conducting in-depth case studies on the shipping and digital platform industries, among other initiatives.
On the merger review front, they focused on refining product market definitions for retail mergers, learning from KFTC’s experience in complex merger cases and developing effective strategies for collecting crucial data from merging companies and other relevant parties.
The KFTC Expert Dispatch seeks to provide in-depth assistance to competition authorities on topics such as cartel, M&A, and abuse of dominance.
As the Philippines’ primary antitrust agency, the PCC is responsible for enforcing the Philippine Competition Act (PCA).
The PCA prohibits anti-competitive practices, abuse of dominance, and anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions to ensure fair competition and protect consumer welfare.