New guidelines signal Namibian authority’s intention to focus on enforcing restrictive practice provisions

Restrictive business practices are described in the guidelines as those which cause competitive harm to competitors and other market participants. Examples include the abuse of dominance, price fixing, collusive tendering, excessive pricing and minimum resale price maintenance.

The guidelines signal a new phase in Namibian competition law. Historically focussed on merger regulation, the Namibian regulator’s new priority appears to now be restrictive practice enforcement.

It is also noteworthy that the Namibian Commission sees monitoring of competition related media reports as an important source of information and that it may even decide to initiate a complaint based on information published in the media.