Competition Act, 2010

What it is

The Competition Act, 2010 is Pakistan's antitrust statute. It replaced the Competition Ordinances of 2007 and 2009, which had themselves replaced the monopolies law of 1970, and it established the Competition Commission of Pakistan on a permanent statutory footing. Section 3 prohibits abuse of a dominant position. Section 4 prohibits agreements that prevent, restrict or reduce competition — the cartel provision, which reaches price fixing, market sharing, bid rigging and collusive output decisions, including through trade associations. Section 10 prohibits deceptive marketing practices. Sections 11 and following require undertakings meeting notification thresholds to seek Commission clearance before completing a merger or acquisition, with thresholds set in the merger control regulations.

The Commission's toolkit is wide: enquiries, search and inspection, show-cause proceedings and penalties that can reach 75 million rupees or ten per cent of annual turnover, whichever it elects to apply [the current penalty framing TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. A leniency regime exists for cartel participants who cooperate. Appeals from Commission orders lie to the Competition Appellate Tribunal, and from the Tribunal to the Supreme Court.

What changed

The Act itself has not been substantively amended since 2010 [any recent amendment TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. What has moved is everything around it. Constitutional challenges to the Act — principally the argument that, after the Eighteenth Amendment, the federation lacked competence to legislate on competition — have been pending before the high courts and the Supreme Court for well over a decade, and a large share of the penalties the Commission has imposed remains unrecovered behind stay orders [the current status of the vires litigation and of penalty recovery TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].

Meanwhile enforcement tempo has risen. The Commission has pursued cartel conduct in commodity sectors, issued a steady stream of deceptive marketing orders, and handles a growing merger review docket as deal activity routes through mandatory notification. The Appellate Tribunal, which has had periods of dormancy for want of members, has been hearing appeals again [its current composition and backlog TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. As of mid-2026 the working assumption for any business of scale is that the Act is enforced and that the Commission reads the market.

Who is affected

Any undertaking doing business in Pakistan is within the Act, but the pressure points are specific: companies with significant market share in any relevant market; members of trade associations, where a circulated price recommendation can become a cartel case; acquirers and targets in transactions that meet the notification thresholds; and any business whose advertising makes comparative or absolute claims, which is where deceptive marketing enforcement concentrates.

What to do

Build merger notification into every deal timetable at term-sheet stage — clearance is a condition to closing, not an afterthought. Audit participation in trade associations and stop any exchange of price, capacity or customer information. Keep contemporaneous records showing that pricing decisions were taken independently. Have marketing claims substantiated before publication. If a Commission enquiry or show-cause notice arrives, respond through counsel within the deadline, and treat dawn-raid readiness as part of ordinary compliance for businesses in concentrated sectors.