Competition and Fair Trading Commission of Malawi

CFTC engages Airtel Malawi in compliance programme

Details: Created on Friday, 02 October 2015 15:23

Malonda makes a presentation as Kyumba (C) and Director of Enforcement and Compliance, Martha Kaukonde listen

The Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) recently engaged Airtel Malawi in a compliance programme—procedures that are aimed at ensuring that enterprises have adequate measures to detect and address breach of competition law.

Speaking during one of the compliance workshops at Airtel Head Office in Lilongwe, CFTC Executive Director Charlotte Wezi Malonda said consequences of failing to comply with competition law are serious and all businesses should ensure that they have adequate compliance procedures.

“The objectives of the compliance programme are to raise awareness of competition law issues throughout your business. This will ensure reduced the risk of infringing the competition rules; ensure that agreements and arrangements are structured in a way that minimises potential competition issues and reduce the risk of careless use of language leading to investigations into suspected anti-competitive behavior,” said Malonda.

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The programme has a checklist which businesses have to look at. The checklist includes whether company representatives ever speak to or make contact with competitors, whether employees attend trade association meetings or industry conferences. The checklist also considers whether employees seem to have information about your competitor’s prices or business plans and whether the company enters into exclusive contracts for long periods with customers or suppliers.

Some of the workshop's participants

Airtel Malawi Regulatory Director, Wilson Kyumba speaking during the compliance programme said the procedures were welcome and are happy to implement it.