Assessing competition impacts

Competition assessments in regulatory impact statements

Regulation sets the rules to allow markets to work better. However, poorly designed regulation can have the opposite effect, and can detrimentally affect competition and innovation.

We provide advice on the impacts of government policies and proposed regulation on competition and consumers. As a general rule:

• any restrictions on competition in regulation should be the minimum necessary to achieve the public interest objectives
• the public benefits of that regulation should materially outweigh the competition detriments.

OECD guide for policy makers

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has prepared a guide to assist policy makers to take into account the competition impacts of proposed regulation. This can be accessed on their website.

OECD website — Competition Assessment Toolkit(external link)

Occupational regulation

The aim of regulating occupations is to protect the public from the risks of an occupation being carried out incompetently or recklessly.

If you’re developing policy or regulation in this area, we recommend that you follow the policy framework in the Cabinet circular below and consult with us.

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) website — Policy framework for occupational regulation(external link)