Comments by the Business at OECD (BIAC) Competition Committee to the OECD Competition Committee

the effect on the promotion of a greater spread of ownership, in particular to increase the levels of ownership by historically disadvantaged persons and workers in the market. [...] In pursuing the mandate set out by the DTIC, the Commission has maintained a focus on the promotion of ownership of historically disadvantaged South Africans and placed a positive obligation on firms to divest a controlling interest in the merging parties’ business to historically disadvantaged shareholders and the creation of so-called employee share ownership schemes for employees of the merging. [...] On October 30, 2020, the Commission issued a Statement of Objections setting out its preliminary concerns, noting “To deliver on the project of the European Green Deal, emphasis is placed on projects increasing the efficiency of the transport system, strongly prioritising the rail transport and improvement of the railway networks. [...] BIAC noted in its 2023 contribution to the OECD roundtable on the optimal design, organisation and powers of competition authorities that the unbounded exercise of these new powers “may place the authority in the invidious position of straying into industrial policy that would more naturally sit with governments.”35 As governments expect competition authorities to be responsive to political or ind. [...] In 2023, BIAC recommended that authorities consider the following advocacy aimed at government:44 • Placing competitive neutrality at the core of authorities’ policies and becoming role-models in the application of the OECD Competitive Neutrality Recommendation, as the incentives for government to intervene in markets continues to grow.