In Peru, the National Directorate for Investigation and Promotion of Free Competition (the Directorate) of the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (the INDECOPI) has technical autonomy and acts as an administrative prosecutor, investigating and sanctioning anticompetitive conduct. It also issues opinions on the existence of unlawful conduct.
As part of its competencies, the Directorate may conduct market studies, through which the Directorate examines a market in its entirety (the regulatory framework, its structure, and the behavior of participants), in order to promote competition by making markets function better and more efficiently.
When competition problems are identified through market studies, a series of options are open to INDECOPI; among them:
- it can initiate enforcement actions;
- it can issue non-binding recommendations to the government, including all ministries, public agencies and independent regulators, to change laws, regulations or public policies when these are the root cause of the competition problems; or,
- it can issue non-binding recommendations to the government to change the way public agencies operate when these are the main customers or suppliers in the market, and their behavior restricts or distorts competition.
