Deadline: December 20, 2019
The International Competition Network (ICN) and the World Bank Group are pleased to announce the launch of the 2019–2020 Competition Advocacy Contest. This contest aims to highlight the key role competition agencies, sector regulators and other governmental bodies or non-governmental organizations play in promoting competition by showcasing their advocacy success stories.
Contest Details
As defined by the ICN, competition advocacy refers to activities that promote a competitive environment through non-enforcement mechanisms, such as building relationships with government entities, increasing public awareness of competition’s benefits and identifying and removing anticompetitive policies and regulations.
They are looking for success stories from competition agencies, other public bodies or civil society that demonstrate the tangible results of competition advocacy regarding:
- Theme 1. Unleashing competition for more and better jobs: Globalization and technological change have been labeled as contributors to recent fall in the labor share of income and concerns regarding the capacity of economies to generate jobs has led to public demands for reviewing market-based policies. In this context, competition authorities may be called to consider in their enforcement and advocacy actions objectives such as the protection of labor income or labor-intensive sectors. This is an opportunity for authorities to show how competition can open markets, stimulate growth and create more and better (higher productivity) jobs.
- Theme 2. Aligning industrial policies with competition principles: Competition authorities are often confronted with government plans or initiatives to boost the competitiveness of a sector by creating national champions, granting state aid, reinforcing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and protecting nascent or strategic industries. In a context where policymakers may regard competition rules as an obstacle to the implementation of industrial policies, competition authorities face the challenges of advocating the complementary role of these two tools, demonstrating how competition principles can increase the effectiveness of such policies.
- Theme 3. Promoting pro-competition data regulation: Data has become a strategic variable in the digital economy, particularly when used as a key input for market participation, innovation and expansion. New rules related to the use of data need to account for not only the concerns related to consumer protection and data privacy but also the need to provide access and interoperability between market players. In this context, competition advocacy can help policy makers define principles to inform data regulation and identify how to ensure that markets that rely on data remain contestable.
- Theme 4. Boosting policy effectiveness through better coordination between enforcement and advocacy: Both competition law enforcement and advocacy have a critical and mutually reinforcing role in achieving pro-competitive market outcomes. Competition agencies may launch enforcement actions following an advocacy initiative if it was not enough to overcome market failures. At the same time, competition agencies may expand the impact of their enforcement actions by proposing pro-active advocacy initiatives.
Benefits
- Winning applicants will be invited to present their stories at a joint ICN-World Bank Group event, and winning stories will be featured in an ICN-World Bank Group Publication.
Eligibility
- Competition agencies, sector regulators and other government bodies and non-governmental organizations promoting competition policy are welcome to apply.
Selection Process
Submissions will undergo a rigorous assessment of the following criteria:
- Relevance of the competition issue tackled by the initiative;
- Success of the advocacy activity – results achieved;
- Impact and effects on markets, spillover effects and lessons learned;
- Advocacy strategy – creativity and originality, cooperation mechanisms deployed.
Application
For more information, visit ICN-WBG Contest.
