In the case of guidance, CCCS may indicate whether the agreement or conduct is likely to infringe the section 34 and/or 47 prohibition and for agreements, whether they are exempted under a block exemption. In the case of decision, CCCS will indicate whether the agreement or conduct infringes the section 34 or 47 prohibition and if the law has not been infringed, whether this is because of an exclusion or exemption (for agreements).
If CCCS gives favourable guidance or makes a favourable decision, there are only limited circumstances under which the matter can be reopened. There are fewer instances under which CCCS is allowed to take action after a favourable decision has been made, compared to favourable guidance.
In the case of guidance, once CCCS has issued a guidance that infringement is unlikely, it will take no further action unless:
- it has reasonable grounds for believing that there has been a material change of circumstance since it gave its guidance;
- it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the information on which it based its guidance was incomplete, false or misleading in a material particular;
- a complaint about the agreement or conduct has been made to CCCS (in the case of agreements, the complaint is to come from someone who is not a party to the agreement); or
- (in the case of agreements) one of the parties to the agreement applies to CCCS for a decision in respect of the agreement, under section 44 of the Act.
In the case of decisions, once CCCS has issued a decision that there is no infringement, CCCS will take no further action in respect of the notified agreement or conduct, unless:
- CCCS has reasonable grounds for believing that there has been a material change of circumstance since it gave its decision; or
- CCCS has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the information on which it based its decision was incomplete, false or misleading in a material particular.
However, applications for decision are not afforded the same level of confidentiality as that which may be given to applications for guidance. In particular, once an application for decision is made, a summary of the application's details (provided by the applicant) will be entered into a public register.
Finally, the filing fee is higher for decisions than guidance (see below), reflecting the greater amount of effort required to determine the outcome.
|
Initial Fee
|
Further Fee
|
Notification for Guidance
|
S$3,000
|
S$20,000
|
Notification for Decision
|
S$5,000
|
S$40,000
|