In brief
- New omnibus law introduces higher administrative penalties and repeals criminal sanctions for Anti-monopoly Law violations
- Competition authority issues new merger control guidelines
The Omnibus Law on Job Creation was passed on 5 October and is expected to take effect within 30 days, or sooner upon signing by the President. The Omnibus Law also amends other several provisions of the Anti-monopoly Law in relation to appeals and other penalties for Anti-monopoly Law violations. Issued on 6 October 2020, the ICC’s new merger control guidelines provide clarity on current practice and also introduce new guidance on a number of procedural and substantive issues.
This update was published on 16 October 2020 as part of our quarterly newsletter, Asia Pacific Competition Highlights. Click here to access the full report, which covers the most notable antitrust developments across 11 Asia Pacific jurisdictions.
New omnibus law introduces higher administrative penalties and repeals criminal sanctions for Anti-monopoly Law violations
The Omnibus Law on Job Creation (Omnibus Law) was passed on 5 October and is expected to take effect within 30 days, or sooner upon signing by the President. The Omnibus Law amends several provisions of the Antimonopoly Law:
- it removes the statutory maximum (previously IDR 25 billion) on administrative fines, which, together with all other penalties under the law, will be subject to guidance from pending government regulations
- most of the criminal sanctions under the Antimonopoly Law have been repealed. The exception is the penalty for the crime of obstructing an ICC investigation – this is now subject to a fine of up to IDR 5 billion or one-year detention in lieu of a fine
- the period during which the Commercial Court is required to issue its appeal decision has been deleted. It remains unclear if this development will substantively improve an appellant’s opportunities to present its case to the court in practice
- it eliminates the 30-day deadline for the Supreme Court to issue its decision at the cassation level, which is the next (after the Commercial Court) and final level of appeal against an ICC decision, which services to codify the current practice
The full client alert is available here.
Competition authority issues new merger control guidelines
Issued on 6 October 2020, the ICC’s new merger control guidelines provide clarity on current practice and also introduce new guidance on a number of procedural and substantive issues. The new 2020 Merger Guide covers a number of key developments, including:
- a new simplified 14-day review process for transactions considered to have no impact on competition in Indonesia (such as where the parties have no competitive overlap, or the transaction does not lead to vertical integration)
- new concentration assessment thresholds, indicating the levels of concentrations above which the ICC would consider a transaction to warrant a comprehensive merger review
- a potentially narrower local nexus test for foreign-to-foreign transactions
- exemptions for certain categories of asset transactions from merger review, such as for acquisitions of assets valued under IDR 250 billion for non-bank acquirers and IDR 2.5 trillion for bank acquirers
- a definition of “ultimate holding entity”
- guidance on potential merger remedies
A full client alert will be available shortly.
