This fifth edition of OECD Competition Trends presents unique insights into global competition trends based on data from 77 OECD and non-OECD jurisdictions. It analyses multi-year data on a large number of economic and legal indicators in the OECD CompStats database with a focus on the main developments in 2022. In doing so, OECD Competition Trends 2024 supports informed policy making and contributes to improving competition law and policy around the world.
The OECD Competition Committee, which includes representatives of the world’s major competition authorities, is the premier source of policy analysis and advice to governments on how best to harness market forces in the interests of greater global economic efficiency and prosperity. For over 60 years, the OECD and its Competition Committee have taken a leading role in shaping the framework for international co‑operation among competition agencies. The resulting recommendations, best practices and policy roundtables serve both as models and inspiration for national initiatives and as tools for sharing global best practices on competition law and policy. Competition officials from developed and emerging economies are offered a unique platform from which to monitor developments in competition policy and enforcement, and to discuss new solutions for increasing effectiveness.
The OECD CompStats database is the result of an initiative launched in 2018. The database compiles general statistics relating to competition agencies, including data on enforcement and resources and information on advocacy initiatives. The data are collected annually and currently covers the period 2015‑22. The data are mainly presented at an aggregate level, combining the data of individual jurisdictions. The aggregate‑level analyses focus on (i) all participating jurisdictions (“All jurisdictions”), (ii) two groups consisting of OECD and non-OECD jurisdictions, and (iii) four geographic regions (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle East and Africa (MEA)). This year, participating jurisdictions have agreed to make public their data pertaining to merger control. Therefore, the data in that section is not only presented on an aggregated basis. The objective is not to rank jurisdictions, which is not possible given the specificities of their merger regimes, however it does allow to better understand the data and address jurisdiction-specific phenomena.
In this year’s report, some numbers from earlier years may differ from previous versions of the OECD Competition Trends series for several reasons, including: (i) Costa Rica has been included this year in OECD averages as it became an OECD Member on May 2021, making 2022 its first full year as a Member; (ii) some jurisdictions provided information that was not available in previous years; and (iii) some jurisdictions provided revised statistics for some variables.
As the role and scope of competition law and policy continue to evolve, the tools of competition authorities must constantly develop and incorporate lessons learned from others. This publication contributes to helping policy makers and competition enforcers to stay up to date with the different ways in which competition law and policy is applied throughout the world.
The publication was prepared by the OECD Competition Division, in particular a team composed of Wouter Meester, project leader; Daniel Westrik; Aura García Pabón; Manuela Sánchez and Alberto Gómez, all of the OECD Competition Division. The report benefited from comments and suggestions by Ori Schwartz and Antonio Capobianco, respectively Head and Deputy Head of the OECD Competition Division. The report was prepared for publication by Erica Agostinho. The authors thank the individual competition authorities in the participating jurisdictions who provided the information on which much of this publication is based.