In honor of the ICN’s Advocacy Workshop – hosted by the French Autorité later this week – ICNBlog will be highlighting member agency competition advocacy efforts all week. Please feel free to submit additional links to agency advocacy initiatives for future posts and check back all week for examples of competition advocacy.

We begin the week, appropriately, with the Workshop hosts and the JFTC:

Market recommendations – Car Repair and maintenance in France

The French Autorité recently issued recommendations after its examination of competition in the car repair and maintenance sector. The recommendations aim to lower the price of car repairs and maintenance as well as forge new competitive dynamics in the automotive sector.

Market recommendations: Electricity in Japan

Last month the Japan Fair Trade Commission announced recommendations on the state of competition in the electricity market. This was in response to the government’s decision, “Policy on Regulatory and Institutional Reform in the Energy Sector” that requires the JFTC to analyze the status of competition in the electricity market, and to find solutions from the standpoint of competition policy. The JFTC, in response to the cabinet decision, conducted a study on the electricity market in Japan and made proposals to promote competition in the sector.