Dear Members and Friends

In January, we shared an important message, via an EDM, from the Competition & Consumer Commission, Singapore (CCCS) entitled “Collaborate with Greater Confidence”: here is the link to that message again for ease of reference.

You will find it useful when reading this thought leadership piece from Chamber member Kala Anandarajah, PBM of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP on collaborating with care. It is wise advice.

“Collaborating with other businesses is desirable and most often leads to positive outcomes. However, collaborating businesses can inadvertently violate the Competition Act (Act), which prohibits agreements that have the object or effect of preventing, restricting or distorting competition. Note that “agreements” is defined very widely under the Act and includes informal agreements as well as the sharing of information between businesses whether directly or through trade associations. The violation can arise where businesses share markets, discuss pricing, discounts or rebates, or allocate customers, just to name a few.

CCCS enforces violation strictly and has taken action against companies and associations for exchanging commercially sensitive information, issuing price guidelines, engaging in price discussions and information sharing in the context of a joint venture, amongst others. 

To guide businesses, CCCS issued business collaboration guidelines covering seven common types of business collaborations (from information sharing to joint production or commercialisation agreements to R&D agreements). Yet, the assessment is often not so straightforward. To avoid violating the Act, businesses must review their proposed collaboration based on the specifics of the collaboration, including who and what they are collaborating on, using the guidelines as a marker.”

Yours faithfully
Victor Mills
Chief Executive