Comments of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC)

Affiliated with the ICC and also headquartered in Paris, BIAC is the OECD-recognized link between OECD and the business community.
The topic of comity is an important one for businesses that conduct operations on an international scale, and has been discussed in multiple policy statements issued by the ICC and BIAC.
As the AMC recognized in its request for comments, more than 100 jurisdictions around
the globe have adopted competition or antitrust laws.
While the proliferation of national competition regimes has created opportunities both for cooperation among sister agencies and for the convergence of policies and procedures, it also has created the potential for a variety of adverse consequences, including increased transaction costs and heightened uncertainty for businesses, and instances of friction and conflict across jurisdictional boundaries.
Both positive and adverse consequences are manifested across a spectrum of substantive antitrust areas, including multi-jurisdictional mergers, vertical agreements, monopolization or dominance, and hard-core cartels.
Greater reliance on comity mechanisms holds the potential to reduce the adverse consequences flowing from the proliferation of competition regimes while concomitantly enhancing the quality of antitrust enforcement and the interaction of sister agencies.
While initial steps have been taken to strengthen reliance on comity principles and mechanisms, further work remains.
As detailed in these comments, the ICC and BIAC urge the AMC to consider
recommendations for enhancing international antitrust comity mechanisms.