Publications & Documents

This report assesses and monitors progress in the design and implementation of SME policies in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. It was developed as part of the OECD LAC Regional Programme, in co-operation with CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA). The 2024 report tracks progress made since 2019 across eight policy dimensions and presents the latest key findings on SME development and related policies. It identifies emerging challenges impacting SMEs in the region and provides recommendations for governments to build a successful SME sector. The 2024 edition, the second in the series, benefits from an updated methodology that analyses SME digital transformation support policies, introduces a green economy pilot dimension, and incorporates a cross-cutting gender approach. This edition extends the coverage by introducing two new countries (Brazil and Paraguay) to the already seven participating countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay), guaranteeing the inclusion of all members of the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur.

The Competitive Neutrality Toolkit provides a set of good practices, based on examples from international experience, to support public officials in identifying and reducing distortions to competition due to state intervention. It supports the implementation of the principles set out in the OECD Recommendation on Competitive Neutrality to promote a level playing field, and covers the Recommendation’s main themes: competition law and enforcement, regulatory environment, public procurement, state support, and public service obligations.

Data plays an increasingly important role for online platforms and the majority of digital business models. Along with data becoming central to competition and the conduct of actors in digital markets, there has been an increase in data privacy regulations and enforcement worldwide. The interplay between competition and data privacy has prompted questions about whether data privacy and the collection of consumers’ data constitute an antitrust issue. Should competition considerations be factored into decisions by data protection authorities, and, if so, how can synergies between the two policy areas be enhanced and tensions overcome? This paper explores the links between competition and data privacy, their respective objectives, and how considerations pertaining to one policy area have been, or could be, included into the other. It investigates enforcement interventions and regulatory measures that could foster synergies or lead to potential challenges, and offers insights into models for co-operation between competition and data protection authorities. This is a joint working paper from the OECD Competition and Digital Economy Policy Secretariat.

This paper discusses recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, which could positively impact many markets. While it is important that markets remain competitive to ensure their benefits are widely felt, the lifecycle for generative AI is still developing. This paper focuses on three stages: training foundation models, fine-tuning and deployment. It is too early to say how competition will develop in generative AI, but there appear to be some risks to competition that warrant attention, such as linkages across the generative AI value chain, including from existing markets, and potential barriers to accessing key inputs such as quality data and computing power. Several competition authorities and policy makers are taking actions to monitor market developments and may need to use the various advocacy and enforcement tools at their disposal. Furthermore, co-operation could play an important role in allowing authorities to efficiently maintain their knowledge and expertise.

Recent global developments, and a number of serious crises, have led to large government interventions in many jurisdictions, driving a debate on whether there is a need to rethink the role of industrial policy in modern economies. This paper explores how to use industrial policy and make it pro-competitive. Competition authorities can play a crucial role in strengthening the impact of industrial policy: by ensuring that competition principles remain a cornerstone of carefully designed industrial policy. Moreover, competition enforcement keeps markets more competitive, laying a good foundation for industrial policy.

Competition authorities have already acquired significant knowledge about the concept of market power and dominance as well as practical experience when assessing anticompetitive practices. However, the introduction of potential new concepts, such as economic moats and entrenchment, may complicate this analysis and further blur the lines between lawful and unlawful practices. This paper discusses the relation between economic moats and entrenchment with market power and calls for further reflections among competition authorities and practitioners on the challenges these concepts may pose. It explores several possible options, including incentivising the use of investigative and analytical techniques, as well as strengthening regulatory tools.

The regulation of occupations is widespread, extending beyond the liberal professions, such as lawyers and engineers, to a broader set of other economic activities. Competition authorities have long been active in improving competition in these markets, both through enforcement action and by advocating to make regulation more pro-competitive. This paper aims to support competition authorities’ advocacy efforts. It includes an overview of the literature about the effects of regulation of professional services, which competition authorities can draw on to advocate for the benefits of less restrictive regulation where appropriate. The paper also brings together analytical frameworks developed by the OECD and jurisdictions such as Australia, the US and EU to assess regulatory barriers to competition. The paper further draws on case studies of advocacy efforts from competition authorities across a range of OECD member countries.

L'édition 2024 du rapport 'Tendances de la concurrence de l'OCDE' met en lumière les tendances mondiales en matière d'application des règles de concurrence au cours de l'année 2022, sur la base de 77 juridictions. Comme pour les éditions précédentes, le rapport de cette année compare différentes régions géographiques et identifie des tendances au cours du temps. Les analyses se concentrent sur les ressources des autorités de la concurrence, les ententes, les abus de position dominante, les concentrations et la promotion de la concurrence. En outre, l'édition de cette année comprend un chapitre spécial sur le contrôle des concentrations, qui fournit pour la première fois, une analyse décomposée par juridiction participante. Le rapport contient également une analyse de toutes les décisions d’interdiction d’opérations de concentrations entre 2015 et 2022. La version intégrale du rapport est disponible en anglais sur le site de l’OCDE.

Ce rapport s'appuie sur les recommandations de l'examen par les pairs du droit et de la politique de la concurrence en Tunisie réalisé par l'OCDE en 2022. Il propose une vue d'ensemble sur la manière de développer des lignes directrices en matière de concurrence dans quatre domaines : le contrôle des concentrations, les sanctions pécuniaires, les programmes de clémence et les programmes de conformité. Cela comprend une analyse comparative de juridictions sélectionnées, dans le but d'aider les autorités tunisiennes à élaborer leurs propres lignes directrices. Bien que les lignes directrices en matière de concurrence puissent jouer un rôle important dans la promotion de la politique de concurrence en Tunisie, cela devrait aller de pair avec la résolution des lacunes spécifiques dans le cadre de l'application et de la promotion, telles qu'identifiées dans l'examen par les pairs.

Peer reviews of competition law and policy are a valuable tool to reform and strengthen a country’s competition framework. This peer review of the Dominican Republic presents the evolution of its competition regime over the last few years and assesses the effectiveness of its current competition law and policy. It provides recommendations to help the Dominican Republic strengthen its competition regime and institutions, developed and discussed at the Peer Review examination carried out during the 2023 OECD-IDB Latin American and Caribbean Competition Forum.