NaCC launches Corporate Leniency Programme

WINDHOEK, 22 OCT – The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) on Monday launched a Corporate Leniency Programme (CLP) in efforts to prevent harmful practices within the Namibian economic sector.
During the launch, NaCC Chief Executive Officer, Vitalis Ndalikokule said the programme provides a framework in terms of which businesses that have engaged in cartel conduct can report themselves to the commission by handing over evidence regarding cartel conduct in return for lenient treatment from the commission.
Ndalikokule explained that cartels are a group of independent producers whose goal is to increase their collective profits by means of price fixing, limiting supply or other restrictive practices.
Cartels typically control selling prices, while some are organised to control the prices of purchased inputs.
He noted that the CLP serves as an important tool in the fulfilment of the commission’s mandate to promote competition in the local economy by investigating cartel conduct.
“Cartels harm consumers by raising prices and restricting supply, thus making goods and services completely unavailable to some to purchase and unnecessarily expensive for others,” he said.
Ndalikokule noted that in the past the commission missed out on opportunities to uncover cartel activities due to absence of the CLP, adding that informants as well as competition authorities from neighbouring jurisdictions were hesitant to collaborate with the commission in providing information that would have assisted these cartel activities being exposed in Namibia.
“The introduction of CLP in Namibia will thus help equip the commission to more efficiently detect and prosecute cartels,” he noted, adding that the CLP will also assist in ensuring that consumers are provided with competitive prices and product choices.
The CLP was published in the Government Gazette on 12 October 2018 and comes into effect immediately.
(NAMPA)