On the Effectiveness of the Algerian Competition Council as the Competent Authority for Monitoring Anti-Competitive Practices

Abstract

In order for the State to regulate the market and protect it from anti-competitive practices through the Competition Council, the Algerian legislature has explicitly granted the latter a special status as an independent administrative authority, pursuant to Article 23/1 of Ordinance No. 03-03 on Competition, as amended by Article 9 of Law No. 08-12, For what is the point of establishing substantive legal rules aimed at prohibiting anti-competitive practices if there is no sufficiently independent and impartial body to monitor and rigorously and objectively enforce such practices? This was emphasized at the 13th meeting of the International Network of Competition Authorities held in Marrakech, Morocco, in April 2014, during which it was concluded that the independence of competition authorities is an essential element for the effective enforcement of competition rules. Furthermore, the independence of these bodies must be enshrined in legal provisions so that they may make decisions free from all pressures, regardless of their source. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the effectiveness of the Algerian Competition Council as the competent authority for addressing anti-competitive practices—which are considered harmful to the general economic order—by assessing the extent of its independence.