Encouragement or preservation of market rivalry. In a free market economy, anti-competitive legislation, known as Antitrust & Competition Law, helps prevent companies from exploiting a dominant position by employing false advertising practices, engaging in anti-competitive agreements, and blocking mergers that would considerably limit competition. Competition law forbids actions that unfairly boost market share, thereby ensuring a fair market for consumers and producers. Anti-competitive behaviour has effects beyond only barriers for smaller companies beginning or thriving in a local market; it also increases consumer prices, lowers service quality, and reduces innovation.

Our Antitrust & Competition Services

Key Challenges in Antitrust Compliance

New dangers and difficulties arise for companies as they struggle to keep pace with complex, constantly evolving antitrust legislation worldwide, increasing their challenges. SARDAR KHAN & CO employs a team of more than 20 competition and Antitrust & Competition Law in Pakistan’s major cities, allowing them to provide counsel on all facets of competition law, including multinational mergers and clearances, cartels, abuse of dominance, international investigations, compliance, and the critical area of competition law litigation.

Before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Ordinance (MRTPO) of 1970, which was adopted in Pakistan expressly to eliminate cartels, Pakistan’s competition legislation was under MRTPO control. Prohibiting anti-competitive behaviour, the Competition Act 2010 is the major law in force at present, and it addresses a wider spectrum of anti-monopolistic activities than its predecessor, which mostly focused on decartelization. 

International Antitrust Guidance

Apart from the Act, the Commission from time to time publishes several standards and rules as well as case law from comparable jurisdictions, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Among other issues, our team is proficient in the overlapping complexities of the laws of various jurisdictions that the Commission frequently consults for guidance when ruling on cases involving excessive or anti-competitive pricing.

Our counsel makes use of the breadth and depth of this experience, both domestically and globally, regardless of where our clients may be.

Expertise in Competition Law Litigation

The competition law litigation team, comprised of committed attorneys with expertise in both established and emerging centres for competition law litigation, is a key part of our Antitrust & Competition Law practice. Our attorneys, admitted in multiple jurisdictions, have extensive experience in competition law litigation and regularly appear before courts and the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).

Our Antitrust Services at a Glance

Our services include:

• Competition and antitrust disputes

• Cartel and regulatory investigations

• Compliance, risk assessment, and governance

• Anti-competitive conduct and criminal inquiries

• Distribution, agency, and trade agreements

• Economic regulation, licensing, and pricing oversight

• Intellectual property and technology agreements

• International trade and cross-border compliance

• Market research, monitoring, and assessments

• Merger and acquisition control

• Strategic pricing and commercial policies

• Public procurement and government contracts

• State aid and regulatory incentives

• Market certifications, recognitions, and compliance assessments

Understanding the CCP’s Role

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) was established for the first time according to the Competition Ordinance of 2007 and continues to function under the Competition Act of 2010, holding various discretionary powers. This allows the CCP to conduct unannounced inspections of company locations and take documents and/or devices to investigate unfair business actions. Since its beginning, the Commission has fined companies up to PKR 75 million for misusing market power and misleading advertising, cancelled unfair contracts, and even overturned some monopolistic mergers. The Commission has received praise from the global community, including the United Nations, for being an important organisation helping guide Pakistan’s economy toward more competitive markets.

 The CCP forbids the misuse of a dominant market position, specific kinds of unfair agreements, and misleading marketing practices. It also evaluates mergers between businesses that may significantly reduce competition.

Overview of the Competition Act 2010

An innovative and modern statute, the Competition Act of 2010 equips the Competition Commission of Pakistan with the legal instruments and power needed to encourage fair competition in all fields of economic and commercial activity, thereby improving economic efficiency and protecting consumers from actions that limit competition.

Whether they are government-owned or privately held, all Pakistani companies are subject to this law, which covers all activities or concerns that could affect competition in Pakistan. Although mostly used to enable regulation, it also describes quick procedures for examining mergers and acquisitions, carrying out inspections, levying fines, allowing leniency, and other important features of law enforcement.

In essence, the law bans activities that might diminish, distort, or eliminate competition, including those that abuse market power, collusion that restricts competition, and false advertising techniques.

How Dominant Position Abuse is Prevented

The Act prohibits the abuse of a dominant position through any Antitrust & Competition Law practice that prevents, restricts, reduces, or distorts competition in the relevant market. These practices include, but are not limited to, reducing production or sales, unreasonable price increases, charging different prices to different customers without objective justifications, tie-ins that make the sale of goods or services conditional on the purchase of other goods or services, predatory pricing, refusing to deal, and boycotting or excluding any other undertaking from producing, distributing or selling goods, or providing any service.

Rules on Anti-Competitive Agreements

If these actions seek to halt, restrict, diminish, or alter market competition, the law prohibits companies or organisations from making arrangements or judgments about producing, supplying, distributing, buying, or managing commodities or offering services. Sharing markets, setting prices, deciding production or sales volumes, limiting technological development, colluding on bids, and applying different conditions are among the agreements this could involve, but not be restricted to. Under this law, the Commission can, nevertheless, offer personal or group exceptions.

 “Prohibited Agreements” refers to both types of agreements: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal agreements occur between rival companies. For instance, if businesses A and B sell the same product in the same area and agree to set a minimum price for their product, they could be guilty of collusive trading or price fixing according to the law due to a horizontal agreement. Vertical agreements, in contrast, happen along the supply distribution chain. For example, if company A makes a deal with its suppliers or distributors that they will only provide their products or services to company A for the length of the contract, this could also violate Section 4.

Combating Misleading Marketing

Consumer Protection under Competition Law

The law bans misleading advertising methods, which means any ads or promotional content that falsely describes the nature, features, quality, or location of products, services, or business activities. A department called the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has been established within the CCP to specifically handle consumer protection matters related to this law.

 Misleading advertising practices also involve violations of trademarks, such as when Company A uses Company B’s logo to market its products without getting permission from Company B first.

Mergers & Market Competition Rules

The regulations prohibit mergers that would substantially lessen competition by creating or strengthening a dominant position in the relevant market. The law mandates advance notification of suggested mergers or purchases that reach the notification limits defined in Section 4 of the Competition (Merger Control) Regulations, 2007. If the Commission finds this situation applicable, it has the authority to block mergers or acquisitions, impose requirements, or mandate the sale of assets. The Antitrust & Competition Law does not make a distinction between mergers that happen between similar companies and those between different types of companies. The term merger also includes collaborative projects; as a result, these too need the Commission’s consent if they fulfil the notification criteria.