Levellin the playing field with Competition Authority

The Competition Act of Botswana was enacted in December 2009. The Competition Act was the first formal legal instrument enacted in Botswana to systematise competition rules in the economy. While the preamble does give a general purpose of the Act, the details of what the Act does is contained in several operative provisions of the Act, which include the functions of the Competition Authority as provided for under Section 5.

Section 4 of the Act establishes a body to be known as the Competition Authority, which is a body corporate capable of suing and being sued, subject to the provisions of the Act, of performing such acts as bodies corporate may by law perform. The authority is responsible for the prevention of, and redress for, anti-competitive practices in the economy, and the removal of constraints on the free play of competition in the market. Section 5 proceeds to list 17 specific functions of the authority. These 17 functions can be summarised into two main parts: enforcement and advocacy.