Competition watchdog defends leniency policy
A policy that encourages offenders to report anti-competitive behaviour in exchange for leniency is crucial for authorities to deal with cartels, according to the chairman of the antitrust watchdog. Samuel Chan, who chairs the Competition Commission, also said on Saturday that the leniency policy could deter anti-competitive conducts in the long run, even though it might appear to be unfair initially.  The Competition Commission earlier announced to take legal action against property firm Midland Holdings, two of its real estate agencies and five senior staff for allegedly fixing commission rates with rival Centaline Property Agency and Ricacorp Properties. Only Midland Holdings and its firms are being prosecuted so far, because Centaline had been granted leniency for coming to the commission first to provide evidence.  "The leniency policy is one of the most important investigation tools that we deploy for unravelling these anti-competitive behaviour, which may not be easy to be discovered in the first place. In one sense, you may argue that it may not be fair to the other respondents or defendants who have been brought to the tribunal," Chan said after a radio programme. "But if you look at this issue in the long run, or in terms of long-term benefits, we believe that the provision or the willingness of one of the respondents to cooperate and to provide useful information for us to achieve an effective enforcement outcome should justify the commission, as an enforcement agency, to offer some sort of benefit for this leniency applicant."  Chan added that the watchdog has a separate cooperation and settlement policy.  "Even if an undertaking or a company is not quick enough to obtain or apply for any leniency under our leniency policy, there's nothing to prevent the second or the third or the other related parties to come forward and cooperate with us, so that they may benefit under our cooperation and settlement policy, under which they may be entitled to a substantial discount of as much as 50 percent of the recommended pecuniary penalty," he said.  Separately, Chan said the commission is inclined to accept proposed changes made by two leading online food delivery platforms on requirements that they impose on partnering restaurants.  The regulator earlier said it found that certain partnering rules by Foodpanda and Deliveroo could hurt competition.