Events Calendar

FTC presents at CCC’s Capacity Building Workshop on Competition Enforcement in St. Lucia

Mr. David Miller, the FTC’s Executive Director, presented Jamaica’s experience in establishing effective competition authorities at the CARICOM Competition Commission’s Capacity Building Workshop on Competition Enforcement held in Castries, St. Lucia, from June 17 to 19, 2024. Senior public officials from the Government of St. Lucia attended the workshop, which was funded by The Commonwealth.

Over its 30 years of operation, the Jamaican Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has consistently demonstrated the necessary characteristics of an effective competition agency, including accountability, accessibility, fairness, confidentiality, and communication. Mr. Miller utilized interactive sessions to describe the core functions of competition agencies, highlighting enforcement, advocacy, and public education, and shared Jamaica’s experience in carrying out these functions. He emphasized that Jamaica’s journey demonstrates a specific institutional design necessary for these functions to be effective, outlining key components such as operations, legal framework, investigative process, decision-making, cooperation, institutional memory, and sound infrastructure.

According to Mr. Miller, overall agency effectiveness can be achieved only through proper institutional design, sound policy and strategy implementation, capacity building, knowledge retention, technological advancements, collaboration with MDAs, and a culture of periodic assessment. These elements are essential to realize the benefits of competition to the economy, businesses and consumers.

Mr. Miller’s presentation is included here

Stakeholder Engagement: Valuator Empanelment Guidelines

The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has conducted numerous investigations into the practice by some businesses to create and manage a list of preferred complementary service providers they engage with. The exclusive list of preferred providers is often referred to as a panel and its use is widespread among commercial banks, insurance companies and mortgage banks, among others.

While the FTC is aware that there is legitimate business justification for the practice, it also acknowledges that the use of panels by businesses with a large customer base may create a distinct competitive advantage for preferred providers over excluded providers. Hence, it is the responsibility of the FTC to strike the right balance to ensure that the use of panels does not unduly lessen competition.

The FTC has developed a Position Paper offering draft guidelines which businesses may follow to minimise their exposure to competition law enforcement actions. These guidelines coincide with conditions under which the use of panels is unlikely to have the effect of lessening competition substantially. These guidelines rely extensively on lessons learned by the FTC from dealing with this issue in the past and from the experiences of other jurisdictions.

Before finalising the guidelines, the FTC seeks comments from individuals or businesses which may be directly or indirectly affected by the practice. The FTC would be especially interested in your perspectives on:

• The proposed time span for the renewal of panels;
• The adequacy of the FTC’s guidelines in addressing the key issues;
• Recommendations for other eligibility criteria or regulations.

The FTC will receive comments up until July 26, 2024.

Please send comments via email to ftc@cwjamaica.com

CARICOM Competition Commission’s Capacity Building Workshop on Competition Enforcement

Mr. David Miller, Executive Director, will participate in the CARICOM Competition Commission’s Capacity Building Workshop on Competition Enforcement, which will be held in Castries, St. Lucia, on June 17 to 19, 2024.  Senior Public Officials from the Government of St. Lucia will learn about key principles and practical tools used in competition law as well as strategies for implementing competition policy in St. Lucia.  Mr. Miller will lead the discussion on establishing effective competition authorities.

FTC attended INDECOPI’s workshop on Due Process and Procedural Safeguards in Competition Cases

Mrs. Susan Lawrence-Simms, Senior Legal Counsel at the FTC attended a three-day workshop in Lima, Peru, on due process and procedural safeguards in competition cases. The workshop was organized by Peru’s National Institute for the Defence of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) in collaboration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The workshop explored how competition authorities can best exercise their evidence-gathering, decision-making, and assessment powers in compliance with due process and procedural safeguards (e.g., the presumption of innocence, proportionality, the right to be heard, the protection of the legitimate expectations of the parties, and the exercise of judicial review). Additionally, the workshop emphasized the OECD’s Recommendation on Transparency and Procedural Fairness in Competition Law Enforcement (2021).

Moreover, the workshop featured of five experts who covered areas such as transparency and predictability, gathering and managing information, investigation and right of defence, impartial review by administrative tribunal and judicial courts, and accessing leniency documents.

FTC participates in Inaugural “Elevate” Procurement Conference

The FTC’s Executive Director, Mr. David Miller, served as a moderator in the Panel Discussion entitled “Levelling the Field: Ethics & Fair Play in Public Procurement”, at the “Elevate” Conference, which was hosted by the Ministry of Finance & the Public Service on March 23 to 25, 2024.   The Panelists, Dr. Amo Eyo, Professor at Bangor University, and Professor Shazeeda Ali, Faculty of Law, Mona, presented on issues such as supporting laws, private sector involvement, procurement principles, and the contract management process.  Mr. Miller steered the discussion while speaking on the meaning, importance, and value to the economy of procurement processes and the competition law implications and benefit or harm to the economic environment, business enterprises, and consumers.

CCC 15th Anniversary activities – Final Episode of “CCC Conversations” Video Series Featuring Interview with Mr. David Miller, Jamaica Fair Trading Commission

Paramaribo, 22 December 2023 – To conclude the activities marking its 15^th anniversary, the CARICOM Competition Commission (Commission) announces the release of the final episode of its video series, ‘CCC Conversations’. This last episode features an insightful interview with Mr. David Miller, the Executive Director of the Jamaica Fair Trading Commission since November 2008.

In the two-part episode, Mr. Miller delves into the advantages of having a national competition law and a national competition authority, shedding light on the positive impact it has had on the Jamaican economy. His extensive experience in spearheading the Jamaica Fair Trading Commission has provided him with valuable insights into the role of competition regulation in fostering economic growth and protecting consumer welfare. Read more below:

15th anniversary Press release_episode Three_22.12.2023 – final

World Competition Day 2023

FTC Presents at ICN Annual Conference 2023

The FTC’s General Manager, Ms. Ann-Marie Grant, participated in the annual ICN Conference, held in Barcelona, Spain, on October 18 to 20.  Ms. Grant made presentations in two sessions.  Firstly, in the session on measuring the effectiveness of competition authorities’ activities, Ms. Grant gave an overview of the JFTC’s involvement in competition advocacy and discussed the type of interventions for ex-ante assessments: “spontaneous” vs agency-planned.  She described strategies for undertaking those assessments: human resources mobilization, data collection, stakeholder engagement, prioritization; and ended with a discussion on Data-on-Demand strategies.  That is, anticipating market studies, building relationships, and signing MOUs with organizations that collect data on key sectors.

This session was of benefit to the FTC’s work with respect to the impact assessment of proposed and implemented recommendations by the FTC to promote competition in the market studied.

In her presentation on the implementation of ICN Work Product, she described the FTC’s experience in using the Market Studies Handbook and Recommended Practices for Merger Analyses and the Recommended Practices for Merger Notification and Review Procedures.  For each Work Product, she zoomed in on the FTC’s stakeholder engagement strategy and the creation of an appropriate pre-merger notification framework for Jamaica.

FTC Presentation AEWG BOS2 – October 19, 2023

CARICOM Competition Commission and Commonwealth Conference on Enforcement Practices and Emerging Trends in Consumer Protection

The CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) is pleased to announce a closing conference to its Online Consumer Protection Course for consumer protection officials and competition officials in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), to be held virtually on 15^th June 2023, at 11am ECT or 4pm UK.

CCC press release

FTC Statement on Strike by Transport Operators

The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) is monitoring reports regarding the ongoing coordinated action by transport operators to withdraw their services on November 14-15, 2022.

The Fair Competition Act (FCA) prohibits coordinated action by competitors. Specifically, section 18 of the FCA prohibits persons who compete with each other from agreeing to prevent, restrict or limit the supply of goods or services to any person or class of persons. This action harms commuters. The FTC advises transport operators against continuing this action.

The FTC is investigating the matter. Breaches of the FCA attract a fine of up to 5 million dollars for each offense.

FTC STATEMENT ON THE STRIKE BY TRANSPORT OPERATORS