‌Increased competition can improve a country’s economic performance, open business opportunities to its citizens and reduce the cost of goods and services throughout the economy. But numerous laws and regulations restrict competition in the marketplace. Many go further than necessary to achieve their policy objectives.

The OECD's Competition Assessment Toolkit helps governments to eliminate barriers to competition by providing a method for identifying unnecessary restraints on market activities and developing alternative, less restrictive measures that still achieve government policy objectives.

COUNTRY CASE STUDIES

Greece, Iceland, Mexico, Portugal, Tunisia, Iceland and ten ASEAN countries have already used the toolkit to assess competition-distorting rules in targeted sectors of their economies. Further reviews are currently being undertaken in Brazil as well as in ten ASEAN member states. 

The OECD also supports countries that do the analysis on their own, such as Botswana and Colombia.

Read more about their experiences: 
ASEAN  •  Brazil  •  Greece •  Iceland  •  Mexico  •  Romania  •  Portugal  •  Tunisia

Volume 1 sets down the toolkit principles, describing benefits of competition, the checklist and examples of government processes.

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Vol. 1 Principles

Volume 2  provides detailed technical guidance on key issues to consider when performing a competition assessment.

Vol. 2 Guidance

Volume 3  is an operational manual that provides a step-by-step process for performing competition assessment.

Vol. 3 Operational Manual

French l Français

Vol. 1 Principles    Vol. 2 Guidance    Vol. 3 Operational Manual 

Arabic | العربية

Vol. 1 Principles    Vol. 2 Guidance    Vol. 3 Operational Manual

The Toolkit provides a general methodology for identifying unnecessary regulatory restraints and developing alternative, less restrictive policies that still achieve government objectives.

One of the main elements of the Toolkit is a Competition Checklist that asks a series of simple questions to screen for laws and regulations that have the potential to unnecessarily restrain competition. This screen focuses limited government resources on the areas where competition assessment is most needed.

The materials can be used by governments in three main ways:

• By government bodies engaged in the development and review of policies, such as the competition authority in its evaluation of competitive impacts of regulations or by ministries that develop laws.
   
• In an overall evaluation of existing laws and regulations (in the economy as a whole or in specific sectors).
   
• In the evaluation of draft new laws and regulations (for example, through regulatory impact assessment programs at the centre of government).

The Toolkit is designed for use in a decentralised fashion across government at both national and sub-national levels. The reason for designing the materials with this flexibility is that restrictions on competition can be implemented at many different levels of government and competition assessment can be helpful at all these levels.

The Toolkit materials are designed for use by officials with no specialised economics or competition policy training. Institutionally, potential users could include ministries, legislatures, offices of government leaders, state governments and outside evaluators of policy. The materials were developed with the active participation of many OECD delegations.

Comments on the Toolkit are welcome in order to prepare for future revisions. They can be sent to [email protected].

2007

The Competition Assessment Toolkit is first published in two volumes, Vol. 1 Principles and Vol. 2 Guidance.

2010

Chinese | 中文 

Croatian | Hrvatski 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0)

Greek | Ελληνικά 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0)

Hebrew | עברית

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0) 

Hungarian | Magyar

Vol.1 Principles  (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0) 

Italian | Italiano 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0) 

Korean | 한국어 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0) 

Portuguese | Português 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 3.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 3.0)   Vol. 3 Operational Manual (version 3.0) 

Russian | Pусско 

Vol. 1 Principles (version 2.0)    Vol. 2 Guidance (version 2.0)