Anti-trust corporate behaviour

Anti-competitive business practices
Restriction of commercial competition
Exclusionist practices of business

Incidence

Anti-trust corporate behaviour has been documented across multiple sectors and continents, affecting markets in North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. Major technology, pharmaceutical, and financial firms have faced investigations and penalties for practices such as price-fixing, market allocation, and abuse of dominant positions. The global scale of mergers and acquisitions has further intensified scrutiny, with regulators in numerous countries reporting increased cases of anti-competitive conduct that undermine fair competition and consumer welfare.
In 2023, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its market dominance in online search by systematically favoring its own comparison shopping service over competitors, impacting digital markets across the European Union.

Claim

Liberalization of trade and investment inside and outside WTO has accelerated globalization and, together with technological progress, enabled TNCs to pursue worldwide strategies. Major TNCs now focus on the entire world market and seek to achieve leading world market positions in their core business through mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, investment or trade. While dominant market positions are not anti-competitive in themselves, certain practices applied by companies enjoying such positions can limit international competition and market entry by competitors.

Anti-competitive practices raise import costs and limit market access and market entry. In this situation, some developing countries find it difficult to establish and enforce national competition rules to safeguard market forces and free market entry. In order to enable those countries to better address and discipline anti-competitive practices, it is essential for countries which have national competition rules in place to back them up with an appropriate system of enforcement.