Working group on international cooperation on competition law enforcement

At its sixteenth session in 2017, the Intergovernmental group of experts on competition law and policy requested the UNCTAD secretariat to facilitate the establishment by member States of a discussion group on international cooperation, open to participation by member States on a voluntary basis, to pursue exchanges on and debate the modalities for facilitating cooperation under section F of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices and to report to the seventeenth session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts. It reported to the next sessions of the Intergovernmental group of experts and the Eighth United Nations Conference to Review All Aspects of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices when it concluded its mandate.

The Discussion Group met regularly and informally through teleconferences and was open Government representatives, with relevant expertise (for example national competition authorities); interested international organizations and networks; and relevant stakeholders from the private sector, civil society and academia.

The Discussion Group main output is the Guiding policies and procedures under section F of the UN Set on competition (GPP), which was adopted by the Eighth United Nations Conference to Review All Aspects of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices. The GPP was an effort made by the Drafting Committee (DC) which was a sub-group of 10 member States from all regions that actively took part on the consensus-building exercise to reach a final text of the GPP.