Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?

The objective of a competition law is to protect the process of competition between firms in the market by preventing any anti-competitive behaviour such as cartel, abuse of dominant position and mergers that have the effect of lessening competition. However, it is often argued that network industri...

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Main Authors: Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin, Abdul Jalil, Juriah, Ahamat, Haniff
Format: Proceeding Paper
Language:English
English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/4/Regulating_Competition_in_the_Malaysian_Telecommunication.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/2/Telco_2.pdf
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author Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin
Abdul Jalil, Juriah
Ahamat, Haniff
author_facet Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin
Abdul Jalil, Juriah
Ahamat, Haniff
author_sort Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description The objective of a competition law is to protect the process of competition between firms in the market by preventing any anti-competitive behaviour such as cartel, abuse of dominant position and mergers that have the effect of lessening competition. However, it is often argued that network industries such as telecommunication should be excluded from the application of the generic competition law, as it has particular characteristic such as natural monopoly, the existence of high entry barriers and absence of effective competition in the market which requires continuous monitoring of the market in the form of access regulation and price control. In Malaysia, telecommunications sector is regulated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission whose duty is to enforce sector specific regulation embodied in the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. For this reason, the newly enacted Competition Act 2010 expressly excluded this sector from the ambit of the law. This paper aims to analyze the existing regulatory and institutional framework overseeing competition in the Malaysian telecommunications sector. The main focus of this paper is to analyze the manner in which competition is pursued through specific sector regulation and whether specific rules on competition are effectively and rigorously enforced. This paper then explains the benefits that will arise from the application of the generic competition law to the telecommunication sector and from increasing the role of the competition authority to regulate the same.
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language English
English
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publishDate 2013
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spelling iium-347732014-02-10T18:01:41Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/ Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach? Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin Abdul Jalil, Juriah Ahamat, Haniff K Law (General) The objective of a competition law is to protect the process of competition between firms in the market by preventing any anti-competitive behaviour such as cartel, abuse of dominant position and mergers that have the effect of lessening competition. However, it is often argued that network industries such as telecommunication should be excluded from the application of the generic competition law, as it has particular characteristic such as natural monopoly, the existence of high entry barriers and absence of effective competition in the market which requires continuous monitoring of the market in the form of access regulation and price control. In Malaysia, telecommunications sector is regulated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission whose duty is to enforce sector specific regulation embodied in the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. For this reason, the newly enacted Competition Act 2010 expressly excluded this sector from the ambit of the law. This paper aims to analyze the existing regulatory and institutional framework overseeing competition in the Malaysian telecommunications sector. The main focus of this paper is to analyze the manner in which competition is pursued through specific sector regulation and whether specific rules on competition are effectively and rigorously enforced. This paper then explains the benefits that will arise from the application of the generic competition law to the telecommunication sector and from increasing the role of the competition authority to regulate the same. 2013 Proceeding Paper PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/4/Regulating_Competition_in_the_Malaysian_Telecommunication.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/2/Telco_2.pdf Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin and Abdul Jalil, Juriah and Ahamat, Haniff (2013) Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach? In: 4th International Private Law Conference , 11-15 November 2013, Bangkok, Thailand. (Unpublished) http://www.lspi.net/authors_NR.html#Rahman
spellingShingle K Law (General)
Abdul Rahman, Nasarudin
Abdul Jalil, Juriah
Ahamat, Haniff
Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title_full Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title_fullStr Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title_full_unstemmed Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title_short Regulating competition in the Malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
title_sort regulating competition in the malaysian telecommunication sector: a need for a new approach?
topic K Law (General)
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/4/Regulating_Competition_in_the_Malaysian_Telecommunication.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34773/2/Telco_2.pdf