KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) has issued letters to four professional bodies, requiring them to dismantle their scale of fees in order to uphold the spirit of competition law.

In a statement yesterday, MyCC opined scales of fees fixed by professional bodies are contrary to the provision of Competition Act 2010 (CA 2010). In light of this, one professional body, The Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators, has dismantled its scale of fees.

However, the statement did not name the other three professional bodies.

“Setting of fees by professional bodies who are not empowered by any law to do so, is an infringement under CA 2010,” said MyCC chief executive officer Dr Mohd Khalid Abdul Samad. “The dismantling of anti-competitive regulatory restrictions in the respective sectors would result in consumers benefiting from competitive prices and better-quality services,” he added.

MyCC has given each professional body up to 30 days to comply with its requirements for the dismantling of the fees.

As part of the engagement process with the professional bodies on the fixing of scale of fees, MyCC had conducted a public consultation session on May 19 last year.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 11, 2015.