GEO
The first international conference on “Competition and Consumer Protection” was held in Georgia in 2022. At the two-day conference - "Competition and Consumer Rights" was organized by the country's 5 regulatory authorities - Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency, Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission, the National Bank of Georgia, Communications Commission and Insurance State Supervision Service of Georgia- the topics such as competition law, consumer rights protection mechanisms and activities carried out by regulatory authorities were discussed. In addition to government and parliament representatives, diplomats, colleague countries, representatives of business, non-governmental, academic sector and experts of the field, delegations of 20 countries participated at the conference. Including the head of the competition and consumer policies branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Teresa Moreira and other invited international experts.
The conference was opened by the Chairman of the Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency Mr. Irakli Lekvinadze, who spoke about the reforms initiated in Georgia in the direction of competition policy and consumer rights protection, and focused on the importance of promoting the principles of healthy competition and introducing European standards for the protection of consumer rights. As Mr. Irakli Lekvinadze stated, the protection of the principles of fair competition and the rights of consumers is the most important factor for the development of a sustainable and inclusive economy and that is why the five market regulators, as a result of the agreement, decided to host an international conference in a unified format for the first time. According to Mr. Irakli Lekvinadze, Georgia will organize similar conferences in the future.
"International Conference on Competition and Consumer Rights was held in Tbilisi for two days. More than 200 guests took part in the conference. Representatives of different countries shared very significant experience with each other, which I think is necessary for planning future projects. We plan to develop this platform step by step and to hold similar conferences every year, where concrete steps will be planned together with experts in the field to further improve the markets", said Mr. Irakli Lekvinadze.
The Chairman of the Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency Mr. Irakli Lekvinadze, within the framework of the conference, signed memorandums of Understanding with the counterpart agencies of six countries. In order to promote a free and healthy competitive environment and expert/methodological assistance, strengthen competition enforcement policy, exchange information effectively between agencies and study international approaches, memorandums of understanding were signed with the representatives of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Poland, North Macedonia and Albania. The heads of the mentioned counterpart agencies agreed that the action plan for strengthening relations and the activities to be implemented in the future should be put into active mode. In addition, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Competition Agency and Grigol Robakidze University.
At the conference, the parallel thematic sessions on enforcement of competition policy and protection of consumer rights were held, specifically on the competition policy and sustainable development; on the competition policy and inter-agency cooperation on regulated markets; on the legal guarantees of protection of consumer rights and characteristics of the enforcement process; on the indirect enforcement mechanisms; on the practical experience of Georgia and Europe in the field of consumer rights protection.
