In brief

The updated Competition Guidelines are as follows:

CCCS Guidelines on Market Definition
CCCS Guidelines on the Major Competition Provisions
CCCS Guidelines on the Section 34 Prohibition
CCCS Guidelines on the Section 47 Prohibition
CCCS Guidelines on the Substantive Assessment of Mergers
CCCS Guidelines on Merger Procedures
CCCS Guidelines on Directions and Remedies
CCCS Guidelines on the Appropriate Amount of Penalty in Competition Cases
CCCS Guidelines on the Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights

These Competition Guidelines outline how the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore’s (CCCS) analytical and procedural framework for administering the Competition Act 2004 (“Act“).

Businesses should conduct a review of their existing business operations in Singapore to ensure that they are in line with these Competition Guidelines.

Comments

As previously reported, the CCCS carried out public consultation from 10 September 2020 to 8 October 2020 on its proposed amendments to six Competition Guidelines (CCCS Guidelines on Market Definition, CCCS Guidelines on the Section 47 Prohibition, CCCS Guidelines on the Substantive Assessment of Mergers, CCCS Guidelines on Merger Procedures, CCCS Guidelines on Enforcement, and CCCS Guidelines on the Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights). It also carried out public consultation from 16 July 2021 to 5 August 2021 on its proposed amendments to the Guidelines on the Appropriate Amount of Penalty in Competition Cases.

A summary of the key amendments proposed are set out in the table below.

Guideline	Summary of key amendments
a) CCCS Guidelines on Market Definition	Clarifications on issues related to market definition in the digital sector, e.g., network effects, multi-sided digital platforms
b) CCCS Guidelines on the Major Competition Provisions	Consequential amendments made to reflect changes made to other Competition Guidelines
c) CCCS Guidelines on the Section 34 Prohibition	Consequential amendments made to reflect changes made to other Competition Guidelines
d) CCCS Guidelines on the Section 47 Prohibition;	Clarifications on issues related to assessment of market power and types of abusive conduct in the digital sector
e) CCCS Guidelines on the Substantive Assessment of Mergers	Clarifications on how the CCCS will assess non-coordinated effects where innovation is an important feature of competition; conglomerate mergers; and proprietary rights/data as barriers to entry or expansion
f) CCCS Guidelines on Merger Procedures	Clarifications on the process of merger filing notifications and to reflect current merger filing practices of the CCCS
g) CCCS Guidelines on Directions and Remedies	Give effect to the legislative amendments to the Act relating to commitments and remedies and reflect the CCCS’s practices on procedural matters concerning commitments and remedies (previously known as the CCCS Guidelines on Enforcement)
h) CCCS Guidelines on the Appropriate Amount of Penalty in Competition Cases	Clarifications on the list of mitigating factors that the CCCS considers when calculating financial penalties in relation to section 34 prohibition infringement
i) CCCS Guidelines on the Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights	Clarifications on the relationship between intellectual property law and competition law, particularly on how the CCCS will assess Standard Essential Patents and licensing on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory Terms; Technology (Patent) Pool; IPRs and the Section 47 Prohibition, e.g., refusal of access to data; IP licensing and the Section 34 Prohibition, e.g., licensing agreements between competitors and non-competitors

The changes were guided and informed by the following:

Responses from the public consultation exercises;
Amendments made to the Act in 2018;
Findings and recommendations from the CCCS’s e-Commerce Platform Market Study
The CCCS’s experience in administering the Act since the Guidelines were revised in December 2016
International best practices

For further information and to discuss what this development might mean for you and how it might affect you, please get in touch with your usual Baker Mckenzie contact.

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