CCPC grants Amnesty to businesses

2019-11-04

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (“the Commission”) is as of 1st September, 2019, running a six month Amnesty Programme; up to the 28th of February, 2020. The aim of the programme is to raise awareness and compliance with the Competition and Consumer Protection Act No 24 of 2010 (“the Act”) by availing persons or enterprises engaged in cartel conduct and Restrictive Business Practices (RBPs) an opportunity to desist from further abrogating the Act; in exchange for a waiver of fines as well as immunity from possible prosecution. This programme focuses on all subsectors of the economy and covers agreements deemed as anti-competitive or restrictive of competition under the Act. The Commission through this programme and in line with Section 79 of the Act encourages persons and enterprises to come forward to the Commission with information that helps to demonstrate the existence of a prohibited agreement. The said information should be of such quality and degree of detail that it increases the chances of proving the existence of the prohibited agreement which the Commission would ideally have not been privy or have access to at all without investigation. In light of this, the Commission is thus offering an opportunity to persons or enterprises to apply for amnesty and subsequently become good corporate citizens by complying with the Act. Persons or enterprises who may not be sure whether their conduct or agreement is in breach of the Act are free to engage the Commission in person, or through their legal representatives; anonymously or otherwise. Note should be taken that the Amnesty Programme is restricted to Part III of the Act, and will therefore not extend to Mergers or Unfair Trading covered under Parts IV and VII of the Act respectively.

Namukolo Kasumpa

CCPC Public Relations Officer