CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT

Member States’ Obligations

Member States are required to ensure that all anticompetitive agreements are null and void within its jurisdiction, except for those benefiting from exclusions or exemptions. To meet this obligation, Member States are required to:

• Enact competition laws consistent and compliant with the rules of competition and provide penalties for anti-competitive business conduct.
• Enact legislation to ensure that determinations of the CARICOM Commission are enforceable in their jurisdictions.
• Establish and maintain institutional arrangements and administrative procedures to enforce competition laws by establishing and maintaining national competition authorities for the purpose of facilitating the implementation of the rules of competition.
• Take effective measures to ensure access by nationals of other Member States to competent enforcement authorities including the courts on an equitable, transparent and non-discriminatory basis.
• Provide for the dissemination of relevant information to facilitate consumer choice.

Each Member State shall require its National Competition Authority to:

• Cooperate with the CARICOM Commission in achieving compliance with the rules of competition.
• Investigate any allegations of anti-competitive business conduct referred to the authority by the Commission or another Member State.
• Co-operate with other national competition authorities in the detection and prevention of anticompetitive business conduct and the exchange of information relating to such conduct, giving due regard to the need to maintain confidentiality of commercially sensitive information that was provided on a confidential basis.

It is important to note that national competition laws can be enforced only in national jurisdictions and so national competition commissions will deal only with anticompetitive conduct which takes place in a national economy and which affects consumers in the domestic market.