SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin and Corinne Chew, Drew & Napier LLC
a written statement explaining why the information is confidential. A non-confidential version of Form M1 will only be required if deemed necessary by the Commission to facilitate discussions and meetings with third parties and enable the publication of a non- confidential version of the decision without delay. The applicant(s) will be informed by the Commission of the requirement to provide a non-confidential version of the Form M1, if necessary. Under the Competition Act and the Competition (Notification) Regulations 2007, confidential infor - mation includes information that can reasonably be considered to be commercially sensitive or relating to the personal affairs of an individual. The Commission considers information to be confidential if disclosure of that information would significantly harm legitimate business interests or an individual’s interests, or if it would be contrary to the public interest to disclose that information. If excessive or unreasonable confidentiality claims are made, the Commission may “stop the clock” until the confidentiality claims made by the applicant(s) meet the Commission’s requirements. While the Commission will treat all parties’ submis - sions on confidentiality seriously, confidential infor - mation may need to be disclosed in exceptional circumstances. In such cases, the Commission will liaise with the parties in advance to consider ways to minimise any detriment to them. Applicants will also be given an opportunity to review the draft decision before publication to determine whether it contains confidential information, although the Commission retains the final discretion to decide whether or not information is confidential. 7.4 Co-Operation With Other Jurisdictions The Commission is permitted under the Competi - tion Act to enter into co-operation arrangements with any foreign competition body with approval from the Minister, which may take the form of information exchange or any other assistance as may be neces - sary to assist in the enforcement or administration of competition laws.
The Commission has entered into a number of memo - randa of co-operation and understanding, as follows: • on 22 June 2017, the Commission and Japan’s Fair Trade Commission concluded a memorandum of co-operation; • on 30 August 2018, the Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Commission for the Supervision of Business Com - petition; • on 17 September 2019, the Commission conclud - ed a memorandum of understanding with Canada’s Competition Bureau; • on 29 November 2021, the Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine Competition Commission; and • on 29 December 2021, the Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Administration for Market Regulation of the Peo - ple’s Republic of China. Generally, the memoranda reinforce and formal - ise existing technical assistance and co-operation between the Commission and these foreign antitrust authorities. Co-operation includes work on areas such as information exchange, case notification, co-ordina - tion of enforcement, technical co-operation and the sharing of experiences. On 16 May 2019, the Commission announced that it had joined the International Competition Network’s Framework on Competition Agency Procedures (CAP), as a founding member. The CAP advances basic non- binding principles on procedural fairness and trans - parency among antitrust agencies, and enables closer co-operation through dialogue to better understand the processes of participating agencies. Form M1 requires the parties to state which other jurisdictions they intend to notify (or have notified) of the merger. Merger parties will also be asked if they would be willing to provide a waiver that allows the Commission to exchange confidential information with competition agencies in other jurisdictions.
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