Competitive and fair markets bring consumers higher quality goods and services, lower prices, and more choice. As they encourage firms to become more efficient and to enter new markets, they lead to greater efficiency and in turn to economic growth. Competition also provides powerful incentives for businesses to innovate and helps drive technology adoption.
Competition authorities and governments should promote a level playing field for competitors, ensuring that public policies support efficient markets and that the design of industrial strategies goes hand in hand with competition policy. The OECD works with governments to help them achieve important policy objectives, such as promoting sustainability, without creating unnecessary barriers to competition and assess if competition is working well in all sectors, through in-country projects and international standards such as the OECD Competition Assessment toolkit.