Private AntiCompetitive Practices in Africa: An Inventory

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Private Anti-Competitive Practices in Africa An
Inventory

• Dr. Simon J. Evenett and Professor Frédéric Jenny
• September 2004
• CRC conference, Cape Town

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Overview of this presentation

• Motivating questions.
• Construction of the inventory.
• Current findings from the inventory.
• Case studies with considerable development
  impact.
• Implications for research and policy.

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Motivating question.

• Should SSA nations enact and enforce competition
  laws? If so, which elements of these laws should
  be a priority?
• Is there a problem to be solved?
• Prioritisation of policies towards business
  environment.
• Relevance for capacity building programmes.
• Relevance for discussions in regional and
  international fora.

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Precise questions addressed here.

• Which, if any, anti-competitive practices are
  prevalent in SSA?
• Which, if any, types of firms that operate in SSA
  engage in anti-competitive practices more often?
• Which, if any, lines of business are susceptible
  to anti-competitive practices in SSA?

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Assembling the inventory.

• Principal source Factiva.
• Searched Factiva for articles containing 40 or so
  terms that relate to anti-competitive practices.
• Identified over 6,500 pages of documentation.
  2,500 pages reviewed to date.
• Identify allegations against private firms
  (specifically, line of business/country
  affected/date).
• Steps taken to reduce double counting.

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Important caveats.

• Veracity of allegations.
• Consistency of news reports.
• Duplication of entries.
• Imprecise or incorrect allegations.
• Different use of search terms.
• Language of publication.
• Interim nature of statistics presented here.

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Key dimensions of the database on allegations of
anti-competitive acts.

• 120 distinct allegations.
• 14 types of anti-competitive practices
  identified.
• 68 lines of business affected.
• 12 SSA nations affected.
• Year coverage 1995-2004.

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More reported allegations since 2000
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Country composition of inventory
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Country composition of inventory
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Who makes allegations?
12
Domestic firms are accused more often than
foreign firms
13
Acts alleged cartels dominate
14
Acts alleged cartels dominate
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12 lines of business appear to be susceptible to
anti-competitive acts

• .

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Lessons learned so far

• Anti-competitive practices are NOT restricted to
• Certain lines of business.
• Foreign firms or their subsidiaries.
• Richer or poorer SSA nations.
• Allegations of cartelisation predominatewhereas
  accusations against abuse of dominance are far
  fewer than expected.

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Lessons learned so far

• Government and civil society are important
  sources of allegations in countries without
  active competition law enforcement regimes.
• Where anti-competitive practices recur across the
  region they are in lines of business that are
  likely to have substantial impact on the poor,
  the rural sector, and on small business.
• Please remember the earlier caveats!