Peter Westerlind Wigstrom featured in The Journal of The Hong Kong Institute Chartered Secretaries on Hong Kong’s competition regime

Peter Westerlind Wigstrom, Registered Foreign Lawyer of Deacons’ Corporate Commercial group, recently contributed an article on “Liability under the Competition Ordinance” which was published in the August issue of The Journal of The Hong Kong Institute Chartered Secretaries.

The Competition Ordinance (the Ordinance) came into full force in December 2015. Key parts of the Ordinance are uninterpreted, and Peter provided an in-depth analysis on overseas competition cases and their implications to guide businesses and individuals on the likely extent of their liability under the Competition Ordinance in Hong Kong.

Peter highlighted a number of points in the article including the key parts of the Competition Ordinance which are uninterpreted, and the exact scope of liability for anti-competitive conduct which remains unclear. Businesses are exposed to possibly significant risks as liability could arise from unlawful conduct of rogue employees, subsidiaries, portfolio companies, joint ventures and even third-party contractors or service providers. It remains to be seen how the Tribunal interprets the scope of individual liability and how fines for individuals are set.

CSJ, the journal of The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries, is a monthly publication for senior executives in the public and private sectors.