Public Interest Clauses in Developing Countries

Abstract

Many jurisdictions around the world embrace non-competition-related goals as part of the country competition law policy and include public interest provisions (‘public interest clauses’ or ‘public interest considerations’) in their competition laws. This article discusses public interest clauses that establish non-economic criteria for the assessment of competition enforcement cases, and it takes a particular look at public interest considerations in merger control cases.1 Recent cases2 suggest that public interest considerations play a particularly important role in the merger control assessment of developing countries. Public interest clauses exist in the merger regimes of a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries3 where they have occasionally been used to prevent foreign companies from acquire important assets or assets with a national strategic interest.4 However, the focus of this article will be on public interest clauses in non-OECD countries and how these countries reconcile efficiency-related goals with public interest considerations.