Launch of the ASEAN Competition Compliance Experience Survey-Study 2 Report

This Report summarises and analyses the findings of an empirical survey, conducted electronically between February and December 2022, pursuant to a research project (‘Developing Competition Law within the ASEAN Economic Community’) supported by the EW Barker Centre for Law and Business at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law and conducted by Dr Burton Ong and Dr Andrea Gideon. This is a continuation of the ASEAN Competition Compliance Experience Survey Study (ACCESS), with a second iteration of the electronic survey (“ACCESS 2”). The first iteration (“ACCESS 1”) took place between November 2019 and February 2020 and its results were discussed at virtual stakeholder workshops with representatives from national competition authorities from the ASEAN Member States and other stakeholders respectively in 2021.

In the present, second iteration, we received a total of 220 responses. This is over twice as much as in the first iteration. Overall, despite the newer and more comprehensive data, the results are remarkably similar to those obtained in ACCESS 1. A few key differences observed are presented in the report and summarised in the executive summary.

On 16^th March 2023, the findings of ACCESS 2 were presented at a workshop which brought together 14 competition law experts from the ASEAN region and Japan. Informed by the ACCESS findings, the participants examined the similarities and differences between the merger and anti-cartel laws of six ASEAN Member States. After this comparative exercise, the participants explored the prospects of greater convergence between the merger and anti-cartel laws of the ASEAN Member States. The preliminary findings from the workshop were then shared with a wider audience of practitioners and stakeholders at a public conference scheduled immediately after the workshop.

The results of the workshop-conference deliberations have been integrated into the final ACCESS 2 report. They discuss some possible avenues for convergence efforts as well as potential difficulties. The Report concludes that, despite the difficulties, there could be real benefits for the AEC in pursuing some of the convergence efforts outlined in the ACCESS 2 Report.

Any queries relating to, or feedback arising from, this Report may be addressed to competition_law@nus.edu.sg.