{"id":3206,"date":"2021-05-17T21:17:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T21:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/definition\/competition-agency\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T21:17:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T21:17:36","slug":"competition-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/definition\/competition-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition agency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nThe competition agency is a state body whose mission is to defend and promote competition. This concept refers to the fact that there are a large number of buyers and sellers in the market, and that the price of the product is determined by supply and demand.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Therefore, a competition agency must investigate, prosecute and sanction companies that carry out conduct that, in general, restricts or limits free negotiation.<\/p>\n

But what actions are considered anti-competitive? This will depend on the applicable law in each country.<\/p>\n

Conduct investigated by the competition agency<\/h2>\n

Although there may be differences in the regulations of each country, the general rule is that the competition agency investigates, among others, the following behaviors:<\/p>\n

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  • Agreements between competitors that aim to restrict competition (collusion or cartel).<\/li>\n
  • Abuse of dominant position.<\/li>\n
  • Vertical restrictions (agreement between supplier and customer).<\/li>\n
  • Refusal of sale.<\/li>\n
  • Predatory prices (below the cost of production), which discourages the entry of new competitors.<\/li>\n
  • Narrowing of margins. That is, if the company's profit percentage has fallen too much, for example, by setting predatory prices.<\/li>\n
  • Concentration operations (mergers or acquisitions), which can give rise to monopolies or oligopolies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The general rule is that the competition agency be a decentralized public service, with legal personality and its own assets, independent of any body or service. However, it must be subject to the supervision of a Ministry, Parliament or other higher-ranking entity.<\/p>\n

    Likewise, the competition agency can be established as an independent entity from the regulatory bodies, or be part of the same institution.<\/p>\n

    The Spanish case<\/h2>\n

    In the case of Spain, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) is the body that guarantees free competition and regulates all markets and productive sectors of the Spanish economy to protect consumers.<\/p>\n

    The CNMC is a public body with its own legal personality. It is independent from the Government and is subject to parliamentary scrutiny. It went into operation on October 7, 2013.<\/p>\n

    Previously, Spain's competition agency was called the National Competition Commission. This was a separate entity from the regulatory bodies (Telecommunications, Postal Service, Audiovisual Industry, Rail Transport, etc.)<\/p>\n

    The Antitrust Law attributes to the CNMC both investigative and adjudicatory functions in all antitrust proceedings. In addition, the CNMC must coordinate its action with competent bodies of the Autonomous Communities, the European Commission and the National Competition Authorities of the Member States of the European Union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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    The competition agency is a state body whose mission is to defend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-definition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}