Beyond

Abstract

The Competition and consumer policy of a nation could play an important role in promoting economic growth and reducing poverty. In the absence of perfect competitive market conditions, there must be a competition policy backed by necessary legislation. It is necessary to promote competition through institutional mechanism to enhance consumer welfare. In recent years, competition law has been viewed as a way to provide better services to consumers. The research focuses whether the existing laws are adequate to promote fair competition and prevent anti-competitive practices. The objective is to find out the effectiveness of the laws governing competition and to identify whether such laws are sufficient enough to prevent mergers, acquisitions, monopolies and other anti-competitive practices. The research is exploratory in character. Research data were gathered from primary, secondary and internet sources. It is observed that even though statutory mechanisms were taken by the legislature, the effective enforcement and monitoring mechanisms capable of establishing the effective competition legal regime have been lacking. The current legislation Consumer Affairs Authority Act No.9 of 2003 has not made a serious effort to provide for comprehensive coverage of matters related to competition and consumer welfare. The main loophole is the Act fails to make provisions governing mergers and monopolies. Prominently, the Act is criticized as a mixture of competition and consumer welfare policies. Compare to the previous legislations governing this area of law, this act is considered weaker in some aspects, particular which removed the provisions to investigate monopolies and mergers. However, many improvements could be effected in this new legislation, in conformity with the three core principles of transparency, non-discrimination and procedural fairness of competition legislation.