The Competition Commission of Brunei Darussalam (CCBD) had delivered a briefing on the Competition Act, on the invitation of the Muara Maritime Services Sdn Bhd (“MMS”) on the 4th of March 2024. The objectives of the session are to share the provisions of the legislation with MMS personnel in order to enhance their awareness and understanding of the Act.

Participants were briefed about the three key prohibitions of the Competition Act, namely Section 11: Anti-Competitive Agreements, Section 21: Abuse of Dominant Position and Section 23: Anti-Competitive Mergers.

The CCBD, through its Executive Secretariat, explained that the Section 11 prohibition on Anti-Competitive Agreements, which proscribes businesses to engage in agreements to fix price, share market, limit supply and rig bids, has been enforced since beginning of January 2020. The prohibition applies to anti-competitive agreements, arrangements, and understandings between businesses regardless of how it was reached, whether expressed or implied, written or oral.

The session also shed light on the second key prohibition of the Act, namely Abuse of Dominant Position, pursuant to Section 21 of the Act, which refers to businesses abusing the dominant position it holds in a particular market. A business which holds a significantly large share of a relevant market would be infringing the Competition Act if it has carried out any of the abusive conducts to drive out competitors in the market. These conducts include imposing predatory pricing, applying dissimilar condition to equivalent purchase, refusal to supply without any objective justifications, and engaging in exclusive dealing. Economic-based assessments will be required to determine the presence of both dominance and abusive conducts in establishing infringement of the second key prohibition.

In demonstrating each of the example of abusive conducts done by dominant businesses, the Executive Secretariat of CCBD shared real cases of Abuse of Dominant Position infringements in the region. Among others, participants were enlightened about predatory pricing, which refers to a situation where a dominant business sets prices below its costs, with the intention to drive out other competitors in the market. Another type of abusive conduct is the application of dissimilar conditions to equivalent purchase such as when a dominant business supplies a key input to a downstream market with a poorer quality of service than it provides to its own business competing in the same downstream market.

The session provided an explanation of the third key prohibition, which is Anti- Competitive Mergers pursuant to Section 23 of the Act. It was highlighted that mergers in general do not infringe the Competition Act, unless the merged entity reduces or restricts competition in the market. Mergers or anticipated mergers with risks of substantially lessening competition are to be notified to the CCBD for its consideration and decision, once the prohibition and its related provisions have come into force.

The CCBD through its Executive Secretariat further emphasised that building a healthy competition culture among businesses in the country, through the enforcement of the Competition Act, contributes to the growth of the private sector, ultimately leading towards achieving Brunei Darussalam’s Wawasan 2035’s economic goal.

The briefing was delivered by Economic Officers at the Executive Secretariat of CCBD, Yang Mulia Dayang Nur Izzawanie binti Haji Zainin and Yang Mulia Awang Muhammad Ar-Rifa’ie bin Pehin Dato Haji Awang Halbi and was attended by over 200 MMS personnel. Also present during the session were the Head of the Executive Secretariat of CCBD, Yang Mulia Dayang Hajah Rena Azlina binti Dato Paduka Haji Abd Aziz, and the senior management of MMS. The briefing ended with a question-and-answer session, as well as a quiz session, to further strengthen the understanding of the attendees.

The CCBD welcomes any queries, request for dialogue or briefing on the Competition Act, which can be directed to the Executive Secretariat of CCBD through email at exec.secretariat@ccbd.gov.bn. For further information, please visit CCBD’s website at www.ccbd.gov.bn.