Competition Law And Sharing Economy In Asean: Malaysia And Indonesia

Abstract

The digital based sharing economy’ business pattern is causing a major shift in business trends in ASEAN nations. This shift has disrupted the conventional market business practices and competition on many aspects for goods or services. The current legal phenomenon has provoked the application of competition law and the regulating authority as to how to interact with this new frontier business platform in Malaysia and Indonesia which is still new to competition law. Therefore, the issue is how to promote creative technology and regulate the sharing economy in market competition? This paper studies the impacts of the sharing economy on conventional business and consumer market competition to critically assess its interaction within the scope of national competition law regime specifically in Malaysia and Indonesia. Comparative legal method will be the core research method adopted alongside socio-legal analysis to substantiate the validity of the hypothesis. This paper proposes that law and regulating authorities must introduce some regulatory measures to balance between aspects of anti-competitive protection rules and incentives for innovation in sharing economy business on issues such as standardization-related abuses, imposition of abusive terms in licensing, refusal to license or deal, disruptive innovations and mergers. The paper proposes recommendations with respect to public policy justification and/or exemptions to adapt and facilitate the changes brought about by the innovative new creative technologies in Malaysia and Indonesia in the interplay of competition policy and digital economy.