Cartels 2025

SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin and Corinne Chew, Drew & Napier LLC

Typically, “no poach” agreements are found in individual employment contracts, which may include restrictive covenants in relation to non- solicitation post termination. 7.7 Leniency v Ex Officio Investigations Information on the breakdown and details of leniency/amnesty applications are not publicly reported in Singapore. Infringement decisions issued by the Commis - sion may disclose whether leniency has been granted to certain parties. 7.8 Domestic v International Investigations As noted in 1.1 Legal Bases , the Section 34 Prohibition applies in respect of “agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings or concerted practices which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within Singapore” (emphasis added). In this regard, the Commission generally only investigates domestic cartel activity, and it is expected that such trend will continue, unless cross-border cartel activity is found to prevent, restrict or distort competition within Singapore. 7.9 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Cartels On 1 March 2024, the Commission issued a Guidance Note on Business Collaborations Pur - suing Environmental Sustainability Objectives ( “Environmental Sustainability Collaboration Guidance Note” ), which aims to clarify how the Commission will assess business collaborations pursuing environmental sustainability objectives in the context of the Section 34 Prohibition. In particular, it provides guidance on the following:

• clarification on what are considered environ - mental sustainability objectives; • examples of collaborations pursuing environ - mental sustainability objectives that would typically not be harmful to competition; • conditions under which competition concerns are less likely to arise from such collabora - tions, and how businesses can therefore potentially minimise such concerns in their collaborations; • how the Commission would assess the eco - nomic benefits of collaborations and whether such collaborations may nevertheless qualify for the Net Economic Benefit exclusion, even if there are competition concerns; and • a proposed streamlined notification process in relation to assessments of collaborations pursuing environmental sustainability objec - tives, for businesses that notify their agree - ments to the Commission. On 3 January 2025, the Commission gave posi - tive guidance in its first case under the stream - lined process outlined in the Environmental Sustainability Collaboration GN. The Commis - sion assessed that the joint establishment and operation of Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) Ltd. by Coca-Cola Singapore Beverages Pte. Ltd., F&N Foods Pte Ltd and Pokka Pte. Ltd. is unlikely to infringe the Section 34 Prohibition. The Environmental Sustainability Collaboration Guidance Note is intended to be read together with the Commission’s Guidelines on the Sec - tion 34 Prohibition and the Commission’s Busi - ness Collaboration Guidance Note, which was released on 28 December 2021. 7.10 Crisis Cartels There are no known instances of crisis cartels in Singapore.

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