Officials say a proposal by legislators to stamp out monopolies and other unfair trading practices should be blocked because it might cost too much money and infringe on government policy.
The Government told Legco President Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai that the fair competition bill, drafted by the Democratic Party, should not be allowed to be tabled in the council.
According to the Basic Law, legislators can only introduce a private member's bill if it does not infringe on government policy and has no effect on public expenditure; otherwise, written consent by the Chief Executive is needed. The Legco President is empowered to rule on whether the bill infringes government policy or would incur public expenditure.
The bill, jointly sponsored by Democrats Fred Li Wah-ming and Sin Chung-kai, seeks to outlaw practices that diminish, distort and prevent competition. Such practices include competitors engaging in collusive bidding, fixing prices via monopoly or oligopoly, sidelining competitors by franchised operations and dividing markets among themselves.
But the Government argued that there should not be any general competition law and a 'sectoral approach' was needed in promoting competition.
'The concern was that such a law might run the risk of over-regulating, enlarging the public sector, stimulating expensive litigation, creating uncertainty among the business sector and compromising our free and open trade principles,' the statement said.
