Press release 23_2022
25 October 2022

Today the Steering Group of the International Competition Network (ICN) issued a statement highlighting the need for competition to be a priority and an integral part of the responses to economic crises.
The Steering Group of the ICN, of which the President of the AdC is Vice-Chair, cautions against the possibility of “economic downturns [increasing] protectionist pressures to relax competition enforcement”.
“However, eliminating or hindering competition law and policy during an economic crisis can harm consumers and producers by slowing rather than promoting economic recovery”, they say.
In the statement, the ICN, which gathers more than a hundred national competition authorities and non-governmental experts, identifies the pandemic, the war and climate change as disruptive elements to economies around the world. “Growth and innovation are at risk. Employment, prices and global supply chains are less stable”, they warn.
The ICN representatives defend that “[f]air and open competition, effective competition policy, and active competition law enforcement are critical components of any response to the economic effects of the crises we face today”.

"We must actively enforce competition laws when the economy suffers from crisis conditions. A state of weakend competition due to the economic effects of a crisis can invite increases anticompetitive activities by firms", they state, referring, in particular, to abuses of dominant position, as well as to the so-called “crisis cartels”.
In this context, the AdC organizes today the ICN Competition, Growth and Recovery Workshop to debate this issue (see here).
The ICN Steering Group consists of 20 members, heads of counterpart organizations from various countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany (ICN Chair), Italy, Kenya, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom and USA, among others.
The ICN has as its mission the promotion of cooperation and convergence for a more effective enforcement of competition rules at a global level.
It gathers more than a hundred national competition authorities and non-governmental experts, including lawyers, academics, consultants, and representatives of international organizations and of trade and consumer associations.
 

Read here the joint statement.