Member of the Communications Commission Vakhtang Abashidze, together with the heads of fellow regulatory bodies, opened the international conference on competition and consumer rights. Mr. Abashidze talked about the importance of competition in the telecom sector and highlighted the powers of the Communications Commission to enforce competition fairness. He also emphasised the importance of cooperation between the Communications Commission and fellow regulatory bodies, which ensures effective enforcement of laws on competition.

“Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Competition, which came into effect in November 2020, clearly define the authority of sectoral regulators to use this Law as guidance in any potential cases of competition violations in the regulated sector of the economy. Therefore, the Communications Commission became responsible for both ex-ante and ex-post regulation of the relevant markets. Within the scope of the Law on Competition, the Commission currently reviews a complaint concerning the broadcasting transit rights market. As the Commission prioritises issues concerning potential violation of the Law on Competition, the aforementioned issue is being handled in close cooperation with the Competition Agency of Georgia.

Cooperation between the regulatory bodies in the field of improving the competitive environment will become even more effective after the adoption of the planned legislative changes. More specifically, the Parliament of Georgia is currently discussing the draft law on sharing the electronic communications infrastructure. The law will be implemented by the Communications Commission, which will perform its functions in cooperation with the regulatory bodies from the relevant sector,” Vakhtang Abashidze stated.

On November 16-17, Georgia will host the international conference on competition and consumer rights for the first time. The event will be organised by the Competition Agency of Georgia, the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission, the Communications Commission, the National Bank of Georgia and the Insurance State Supervision Service of Georgia.

Competition law, consumer rights protection mechanisms and activities carried out by regulatory agencies will be discussed at the conference.