Hong Kong’s competition watchdog eyes first court case against abuse of market power
- New Competition Commission chairman Samuel Chan says case will be an important milestone but he cannot go into details
- Chan, a practising lawyer, calls for the body to have more power to collect information for its market studies
Hong Kong’s antitrust watchdog will file its first court case against abuse of market power by the end of this year, the agency’s new head said on Friday, as he called for more power to collect information for its research.
Competition Commission chairman Samuel Chan Ka-yan said carrying out an investigation on businesses abusing a substantial degree of market power to harm competition involved more complicated legal and economic analyses.
“This will be an important milestone,” said Chan, meeting the press for the first time since taking the helm on May 1.
He said lawyers and economists were engaged in studies to make sure the watchdog had reasonable grounds to believe the commercial activities in question had breached competition rules.
Drawing from overseas experience, an investigation on abuse of market power usually took several years to pull together a case with evidence – generally much longer than a probe into misconduct such as price fixing and bid rigging, he said.
But he could not give details on the case.
Chan, a practising barrister and former vice-chairman of the Consumer Council, took over from the commission’s first chief Anna Wu Hung-yuk and echoed her calls for more power to collect information for its market studies.
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He said antitrust bodies in the European Union and Britain had such power. In some cases, the evidence secured could turn the study into a law enforcement action.
The watchdog would continue to communicate with the government on its limitations, he said.
Chan said when his commission colleagues conducted their own study on the motor-fuel market, released in 2017, they failed to secure sensitive commercial information and also had no power to do so.
“From this perspective, we might not be able to have an in-depth understanding of the market structure and its cost structure,” he said.
While the body might not carry out a study on the same topic in the short term, he said it did not mean there was nothing the commission could do to follow up on the public’s concerns over petrol prices.
“As many consumers and drivers are concerned or even feel frustrated about it … We will definitely pay serious attention to information and potential evidence in all areas,” he said.
Chan also serves as non-executive director of the Insurance Authority and deputy chairman of the Town Planning Appeal Board.
