Anti-Competition law in Zambia: Its relevance and applicability
Date
2013-10-09
Authors
Akapelwa, Pumulo
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Abstract
Anti-competition law has been in existence in Zambia for nearly ten years now. Although significant work has been done by the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC) in enforcing the anti-competition law, little work has been done to establish the relevance and applicability of these laws on account of various reasons such as lack of adequate financial, human resources and institutional capability, largely monopolistic-dominated economy especially in areas such as utilities, and uniform pricing of petroleum products among others. Lack of enforcement and enforcement capability renders the effect of the law moribund. The relevance of the competition law as it was enacted in fulfilment of conditionalities set by multilateral agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank pursuant to meet the western donors expectations. Competition policy has a significant role to play in promoting competitiveness and growth. It has been observed that competition policy helps create an enabling environment for entrepreneurial development, ensures efficient allocation of resources in an economy and that privatisation without anti-competition legal framework policy will mean transfer of monopoly power from the public sector to the private sector. An inappropriate competition regime does not add to the development of the economy but acts as a disincentive in promoting competition and growth in the economy. It is important that competition policy is relevant and applicable so as to promote competition and growth in the economy.
It is for this reason that an informative and educative study is undertaken on this subject so as to bring awareness and stimulate debate among policy makers and other
stakeholders on the need to have an effective competition legal framework. The legal
regime must be relevant and applicable to the Zambian scenario.
This area of law has not seen a lot of work done in relation to this subject in Zambia.
Given the background of Zambia's privatisation programme ownership of businesses has
largely moved from public ownership to private ownership creating virtual monopolies.
This is contrary to the spirit of the competition policy.Due regard must be had to the relevance, and more importantly, the setting and implementation of such legal framework must be applicable in the Zambian context. In Chapter One, the essay gives a historical aspect of the Zambian socio-political economy and the legal framework and the development of anti-competition law in Zambia.
Chapter Two examines the necessity and relevance of competition law in a developing
economy such as Zambia. Chapter Three looks at the implementation and effectiveness of Zambia's competition policy and law and the challenges of the competition agency.
Chapter Four looks at the appropriateness and relevance of competition law with lessons
drawn from other jurisdictions.
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Keywords
Competition-Law , Consumer-Law , Consumer Protection