Competition Policy

Governments should consider competition, and its potential benefits, across the whole range of their policies.  Establishing a framework of competition law and liberalising sectors is important, but so is assessing the competitive effects of regulations and government intervention in other policy areas. (OECD)

Jaguar Consulting has extensive competition policy experience, both internationally and within Australia.  This includes work on:

• analysing existing legislation and new legislative proposals to identify potential anti-competitive impacts;
• identifying alternative means of achieving regulatory policy objectives that are less restrictive of competition; and
• developing guidance material to assist policy-makers to minimise restrictions on competition while achieving other, key policy objectives.

We have worked extensively on competition policy issues for both the OECD and Australia's National Competition Council.

Competition Law and Policy in Indonesia

Most recently, Rex Deighton-Smith was part of the OECD team responsible for the OECD Review of Regulatory Reform in Indonesia (2012).  Rex researched and co-authored the Regulatory Reform Review of Indonesia (2012).  He co-authored both chapter 3 of this review (Competition Law and Policy) and the background paper on the same topic.  The chapter:

• documents issues in relation to anti-competitive legislation at both national and regional level;
• analyses the role of the Indonesian competition authority (KPPU) in seeking to remove anti-competitive provisions from proposed new laws and encourage the reform of existing laws;
•  assesses the Indonesian competition law against best practice principles; and
• makes targeted recommendations aimed at strengthening Indonesia's legal, institutional and policy capacities in relation to competition assessment.

Read the Review here

OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit

Rex co-authored the OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit, which helps governments to eliminate barriers to competition by providing a method for identifying unnecessary restrictions on competition in both existing and proposed legislation and a means of developing alternative, less restrictive measures that still achieve government policy objectives. 

A key element is the Competition Assessment Checklist, which enables non-specialists to conduct initial competition assessments and identify areas of legislation that require more detailed analysis.  This is particularly important in countries in transition, where the availability of expert resources is limited.

Read the Competition Assessment Toolkit here

National Competition Policy - Legislative Review Program

Rex consulted to the National Competition Council (NCC) for three years, holding the title of Principal Economist.  He worked extensively on the legislative review program, assessing the performance of State and Federal governments in meeting their NCP obligations to review all anti-competitive provisions of their legislation.  These reviews were based on the "Guiding Legislative Principle", which states that legislative restrictions on competition should only be retained if:

• the benefits of the restriction to the community as a whole outweigh the costs; and
• The objectives of the legislation can only be achieved by restricting competition

Rex worked extensively on taxi industry regulation, the regulation of the professions and a range of agricultural marketing arrangements, as well as playing an internal consultancy role, assisting other NCC staff in analysing a range of technical issues. 

He also published two NCC Discussion Papers.  The first set out a best practice approach to the regulation of the professions and provided the basis for reviewing existing legislative arrangements in this area, while the second reviewed a range of options for the reform of the taxi industry.

Read the Taxi industry Discussion Paper here

Read "Reforming the Regulation of the Professions in Australia" here