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ZAMBIA enforced. While it was acknowledged that domestic competition, enhanced by competition law and policy, would contribute positively to the growth of the national economy, the manufacturers feared that facilitated, thus hampering the development Weak Domestic Corporate Image: owing largely to the low level of public awareness of the Commission’s activities and/or interventions in key sectors of the economy. The experience gained by the Commission in enforcing the Competition and Fair Trading Act, 1994 led to the revision of the legislation in order to 101 strengthen the enforcement of the country’s competition law. The exercise involved renowned international competition experts, and was undertaken in consultation with a number of other developed competition authorities, notably, the Bundeskartellamt of Germany, and the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America. The shortcomings in the enforcement of Zambia’s competition law under the Competition and Fair Trading Act, 1994 was clearly stated by the then Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry in his Ministerial Statement to the National Assembly of Zambia on the First Reading on 28 July 2010 of the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2010. The following in Box 5 are the main points of the Minister’s Statement: Box 5: Main Points of Ministerial Statement to Parliament on First Reading of the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill, 28 July 2010 Background and Rationale for the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill Competition and consumer protection issues in Zambia have been addressed by the Competition and Fair Trading Act Cap. 417 which was enacted in April 1994. That Act, which shall be repealed with the passing of the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill had been found inadequate in addressing competition and consumer protection matters of enforcement and clarity in certain circumstances. The Ministry recognized that competition and consumer protection was not governed by any policy, which resulted in inconsistent enforcement of the law. With the approval of the Competition and Consumer Protection Policy by Cabinet and recognizing the need for more enforcement powers in order to protect our economy and the citizens of Zambia, the Ministry has proposed that the Competition and Fair Trading Act be repealed. In that connection, the Ministry proposed the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill which is a more comprehensive Bill addressing competition and consumer issues that are currently affecting our economy and consumers. The essence of the Bill is to provide for accountable and transparent enforcement provisions and a legal regime tions, and general anticompetitive or restrictive business practices; provide for the process which would not neces- enterprise entry; protect consumers from unscrupulous traders and manufacturers; and provide for a legal regime sumer legislation to international standards; (ii) strengthen the enforcement powers and penalties; (iii) enhancement of consumer protection provisions; (iv) revise the legal regime dealing with competition and consumer cases; and (v) regulatory interface with sector regulators. The reasons that necessitated the above mentioned changes were as follows: (a) Align the Competition and Consumer Legislation to International Standards The Competition and Fair Trading Act, Cap 417 of the Laws of Zambia was enacted in 1994 and had been enforced since 1997. During that period, a number of developments have occurred in areas of competition law and consumer protection. The developments include matters to strengthen secret business agreements (formal, informal, written or unwritten), i.e., cartel activities of persons engaged in business. Governments the world over have realized the great losses that are subjected to absolve in awarding contracts to businesses that collusively tender for bids or allocate markets to each other. Zambia is no exception to these kinds of vices that negate welfare gains. The United Nations Set of Principles and Rules on Competition which were adopted in 1980 by the United Na- inter alia, take appropriate steps at the national or regional levels to meet their commitment to the Set of Principles and Rules. Further, there ZAMBIA
102 VOLUNTARY PEER REVIEW OF CLP: A TRIPARTITE REPORT ON THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA – ZAMBIA – ZIMBABWE have been developments at regional level where COMESA competition regulations and rules were adopted by the Council of Ministers in December 2006 in which the regulations and rules cover both competition and consumer provisions. Member States are expected to, the most practical extent, adapt as much as they can from the regional competition and consumer protection nomenclature in order to provide for convergence in enforcement approach across the Common Market. (b) Strengthen the Enforcement Powers and Penalties The current enforcement powers of the Zambia Competition Commission and penalties in the current legislation powers as well as the penalties against cartel activities. A number of competition authorities have power to summon persons to provide information and also to call for submission of documents. Unlike the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Zambia Competition Commission does not have summoning (c) Enhancement of Consumer Protection Provisions Consumer protection has been problematic for some time and is fragmented in different pieces of legislation. All economic activity has to result in a gain by citizens through consumption. Such consumption must adhere to certain minimum quality standards. International consumer welfare protection actions by governments have primarily been advanced through the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection. The guidelines call on UN Member States to provide for mechanisms to deal with potentially harmful government and business actions that may affect consumer welfare. For instance, Article II of the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection call on Member States to develop and maintain strong consumer protection policies, taking into account the adopted guidelines and relevant international agreements. In doing so each government is expected to set its own priorities for the protection of consumers in accordance with economic, social and environmental circumstances of the A comprehensive draft Consumer Protection Bill was prepared under the auspices of the Zambia Law Development Commission in 2004 and the Government directed the Zambia Competition Commission to have the draft Consumer Protection Bill to be merged with the Competition and Fair Trading Act in order to optimize on resource allocation and use in one institution. A draft Bill resulting from merging the two has resulted in a total review and thus what is effectively proposed is a repeal of the old law. The merging competition and consumer protection matters in a legislation are based on models from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, as well as the COMESA Competition Regulations and Rules under Article 55 of the COMESA Treaty. (d) Revise the Adjudicative Powers Dealing with Competition and Consumer Cases competition matters while small claims by consumers and unfair trading matters may be dealt with under the Small Claims Court Act. Similar tribunals exist in countries such as the United Republic of Tanzania, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia. A tribunal is proposed to be fashioned along the lines of the Revenue Tribunal or the Banking and Financial Services Tribunal. (e) Regulatory Interface with Sector Regulators The proliferation of regulators in the economy entails that there is need to provide for a working relationship amongst them to avoid increasing business transaction costs through adherence to multiple requirements which in and consumer protection issues cut across the whole economy and the proposed legislation is expected to deal Conclusion It is essential that competition and consumer laws be strengthened to facilitate a competitive economy on one hand and protect citizens from unscrupulous businesses on the other hand. Source: Ministerial Statement to Parliament on First Reading of the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill, 28 July 2010
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UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE
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COMPARATIVE ASSESMENT COMPARATIVE A
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PREFACE This comparative assessment
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PREFACE (d) the extent to which the
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ZIMBABWE FULL REPORT ZIMBABWE
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ZIMBABWE TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE
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ZIMBABWE This report is part of the
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ZIMBABWE With the growing political
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ZIMBABWE of restrictive practices,
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ZIMBABWE competition authorities do
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ZIMBABWE divided according to geogr
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ZIMBABWE The Commission in 2006 whi
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ZIMBABWE to take care of themselves
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ZIMBABWE (under Section 9); basical
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ZIMBABWE Full scale investigation i
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ZIMBABWE (ii) to produce any book,
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ZIMBABWE The fact that CTC has a co
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ZIMBABWE tariat of technocrats, who
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ZIMBABWE Table 2: Number of Competi
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ZIMBABWE Regarding the handling of
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ZIMBABWE (Emphasis by the author) b
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ZIMBABWE Section 5 (1) (f) that pro
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ZIMBABWE Whilst the arguments can b
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ZIMBABWE Anti competitive agreement
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