International Competition Network (ICN)

The International Competition Network is a network of national competition authorities which facilitates information exchange and sharing in order to promote more efficient protection of competition. Membership is voluntary; any competition authority may become a member. The ICN is the only worldwide international organisation dealing with the application of competition law. It is organized into several working groups as listed below, which are supervised by the Steering Group. On the basis of a joint consensus, the output of the work of the individual working groups is published by the ICN in the form of recommendations (e.g. as best practices). It depends on the individual members of the network whether and how they will implement these recommendations. Topical issues are also broadly discussed at the ICN annual conference and workshops. The ICN cooperates closely with other organisations, e. g OECD, WTO, UNCTAD, associations and academia.

Currently the following working groups (some of them divided into subgroups) are active within the ICN:

• Advocacy
• Cartel
• Agency Effectiveness
• Merger
• Unilateral Conduct