With the emergence of regional competition authorities across the continent, there has been a growing focus on vertical agreements and their effect on trade for the states party to them. While territorial restrictions are widely recognised as being a means of incentivising investment, regional competition laws have conflicting interests in promoting free trade. This panel will explore how these tensions have played out in practice and whether companies should be required to restructure established arrangements in light of regional competition laws.
This panel will also consider when exclusive arrangements may give rise to anticompetitive effects, drawing lessons from Kenya’s abuse of buyer power provisions (and its contemplated superior bargaining position provisions), as well as the recent Woolworths/Beyers abuse of dominance case in South Africa.