Bapepam, KPPU agree to fight monopolies

Bapepam, KPPU agree to fight monopolies

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) and the
Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) on Thursday to cooperate in curbing unfair
business competition in the capital market.

The agreement is aimed at ensuring that share acquisitions and
mergers will not lead to the creation of monopolies in local
economic sectors.

Bapepam chairman Herwidayatmo said that this was crucial for
helping to improve the business climate at home.

The capital market law alone cannot prevent companies from
creating monopolies or engaging in other unfair business
practices at the expense of the general public, he explained

KPPU chairman Syamsul Maarif said that acquisitions or mergers
should lead only to improved business efficiency, not market
domination by one company.

According to the capital market law, listed companies are not
allowed to undertake mergers that could lead to monopolies.
However, the law stipulates that there has to be an independent
arbiter to decide whether a merger would create such a monopoly.

The KPPU is expected to play such a role.

The KPPU is tasked by Antimonopoly Law No. 5/1999 with
gradually establishing fairer competition in the country and
wiping out the monopolistic practices that have tainted the
country's business world for decades.