Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2010-11 3.5.2.2 Expanding cooperation among The next year, OFT further clarified how authority is regulatory authorities shared between the agencies through its guidelines, Concurrent Application to Regulated Industries.127 Un-der In countries that have general competition laws OFT’s guidelines, Ofcom may engage in most of the with agencies to govern these issues, the electronic communications or telecommunications law in many cases delegates to the ICT regulator the authority to issue rules and decisions related to competition in the ICT sector. The challenge in these countries is to ensure that concurrent jurisdiction between multiple agencies does not result in conflicting rules. Therefore, it is ne-cessary decision-making processes for competition-related is-sues, including investigating complaints about possible infringements under its jurisdiction; imposing financial penalties for violation of the competition rules in line with OFT’s guidance; and publishing opinions in cases involving new or unresolved applications of the Compe-tition Act.128 However, as prescribed in the Competition that the country’s laws provide guidance on Act, OFT alone has the authority to issue and to make and amend procedural rules.129 Further provisions in the guidelines detail methods to ensure consistency in decision-making processes and outcomes between regulators, as well as with EU Directives and UK laws. how different regulatory authorities will cooperate in order to issue coherent, consistent and effective deci-sions. In addition, competition and ICT sector authori-ties often issue guidelines or publish memoranda of understanding on the exercise of their concurrent au-thority in competition related matters in the ICT sector Developing countries have also sought to establish to give legal certainty to stakeholders and avoid dupli-cation guidelines for cooperation and coordination of compe-tition and inefficient use of public resources (see and ICT regulatory authorities. For example, in Box 3.12). March 2010 the Competition Commission (CCM) and the Information and Communication Technologies Au-thority (ICTA) of Mauritius entered into a memorandum In the United Kingdom, for example, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has the general power to enforce EU competition mandates and the country’s Competition Act, but shares jurisdiction over certain sectors, includ-ing of understanding (MoU) on the exercise of their con-current jurisdiction over the ICT sector.130 The MoU es-tablishes a set of guidelines to promote cooperation electronic communications, with the regulatory au-thorities and coordination between the CCM and the ICTA when dealing with cases of anti-competitive behaviour in the ICT sector where they have overlapping powers; sets forth the responsibilities of both agencies in such mat-ters; of those sectors. 125 Before the Office of Communications (Ofcom) gained its full competition powers under the 2003 amendment to the Communi-cations and establishes mechanisms for communication Act, OFT published a letter addressing the and sharing of information between CCM and ICTA with the aim of minimizing duplication of work and facilitat-ing agencies’ concurrent jurisdiction and providing an initial overview of how they should work together to “ensure a productive working relationship, to the benefit of consumers and other stakeholders.”126 prompt and efficient resolution of cases. Box 3.12: Relevant issues for coordinating competition and ICT authorities’ jurisdiction in the ICT sector Taking into account the specific provisions of the legal framework, the following lists some issues that should be considered when establishing guidelines on the exercise of concurrent powers over competition matters in the ICT sector: • Exchanging information to determine which authority has jurisdiction over a specific case; • Determining which authority is better suited to exercise the concurrent powers in relation to a specific case; • Resolving disputes as to which authority should exercise the concurrent powers in relation to a specific case; • Preventing the simultaneous exercise by more than one than one authority of concurrent powers in relation to a specific case; • Processes for transferring a case from one authority to another; and • Sharing of staff and resources between authorities. Source: Adapted from Office of Fair Trade (OFT) of the United Kingdom, Concurrent Application to Regulated Industries (December 2004) Chapter 3 109