ISLAMABAD, OCT 12 /DNA/ – Chairman Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), Farid Ahmad Tarar represented Pakistan at the First International Conference on “Consumer Rights Protection in the Digital Era” in Moscow, Russia. He highlighted Pakistan’s efforts to promote responsible business practices, combat deceptive marketing and address consumer-protection challenges in traditional and digital markets.
Organised by the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) on 8–9 October 2026, the conference brought together international organisations, regulators, government institutions, technology platforms and businesses.
Addressing the session on responsible business and safe products, Chairman Tarar emphasised that effective competition and consumer welfare are closely connected. Competitive markets encourage businesses to innovate, improve quality and offer better value, while accurate and transparent information enables consumers to make informed choices.
Referring to Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010, he said businesses could compete vigorously, but their claims must remain truthful, verifiable and transparent. He cited selected CCP cases involving Strepsils, Dettol, Lifebuoy and frozen dessert marketed as dairy ice cream to demonstrate how misleading representations could harm consumers and distort competition.
The Chairman also highlighted CCP’s technology-enabled market surveillance, including web-scraping tools, AI-assisted analysis of product claims and advertisements, Meta Ad Library and social-media monitoring. He said seller anonymity, counterfeit listings, information asymmetry and the rapid cross-border spread of misleading claims required closer cooperation among relevant authorities.
This surveillance, he noted, had helped CCP flag concerns involving the non-disclosure of mercury in beauty products, misleading regulatory-approval claims, questionable health representations and other potentially harmful product claims. He added that enforcement must be supported by preventive measures and public advocacy, including CCP guidance designed to improve compliance with deceptive-marketing provisions and encourage responsible business conduct.
During the visit, Chairman Tarar held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Maxim Shaskolsky, Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of the Russian Federation, and his team. The discussion focused on advancing cooperation under the CCP–FAS MoU signed on 27 November 2025, covering cartel investigations, abuse of dominance, merger control, deceptive marketing and sectoral competition assessments. Chairman Tarar said the agreement provided a strong foundation for expert exchanges, training, consultations and joint research.
Mr. Shaskolsky welcomed the continued institutional engagement and expressed FAS’s readiness to share regulatory experience and take forward joint activities under the MoU. Both authorities reaffirmed their commitment to practical cooperation aimed at strengthening enforcement capabilities and promoting competitive, transparent and consumer-friendly markets.
