BRICS antitrust chiefs plot new world order
Competition Regulators
The 9th BRICS International Competition Conference, hosted by the Competition Commission from 10–11 September, drew more than 300 delegates to Cape Town, including heads of competition authorities, global practitioners, policy experts and representatives of international organisations.
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BRICS competition regulators set out an ambitious agenda to reshape the global economic playing field at a high-powered gathering in South Africa this week, pledging deeper cross-border enforcement, tougher action on cartels, and a sharper focus on digital and pharmaceutical markets.
The 9th BRICS International Competition Conference, hosted by the Competition Commission from 10–11 September, drew more than 300 delegates to Cape Town, including heads of competition authorities, global practitioners, policy experts and representatives of international organisations.
Opening the two-day forum, Competition Commissioner Doris Tshepe framed the moment as a turning point for emerging economies and global antitrust. “The conference marks a new chapter in the journey of BRICS, in the evolution of global competition policy and in the collective effort of emerging economies to shape a fairer, more inclusive international economic order,” she said.
Tshepe underscored BRICS’s transformation since 2009 into “a central pillar in the global economic order that champions fairness, inclusivity, and the aspiration of the Global South”, while warning that fractured multilateralism is testing those ambitions.
Across four plenaries and a series of breakaway sessions, delegates tackled the pressures roiling global markets: sustainability and trade frictions, the dominance of platform economies, the promise and risks of AI, and the volatility of commodity markets shaping food prices and food security.
BRICS working groups tabled updates on enforcement in pharmaceuticals, digital markets and food, while South African, Chinese and Brazilian panellists probed how competition rules must adapt “in a new era of digital dominance” and the risks of non-regulation. A plenary on sustainability spotlighted calls from the Global South for equitable policies that do not disadvantage developing economies.
Day two showcased research from future BRICS leaders, with papers on access to credit, women’s entrepreneurship, and merger control and public-interest provisions, adding fresh academic heft to the policy agenda.
Delivering the keynote, Ben Joubert, Sous-Sherpa for BRICS South Africa, warned that weakening international law and multilateralism are failing the majority world. “BRICS has a key role to play in modernising and reforming the global order not in establishing an isolated alternative system but in reversing the geo-economic fragmentation driven by disruptive actions aimed at reestablishing old hegemonies and undermining the growth and development of the Global South,” Joubert said.
He urged a “new paradigm of multilateral cooperation anchored in equity, sustainability and development”, adding: “We must also use our collective voice to advance reforms to modernise multilateral development banks and their mandates, and to better reflect the voices and priorities of developing countries.”
In a capstone session, heads of BRICS competition authorities mapped their five-year enforcement horizons. Priorities include boosting small business participation and easing entry for new competitors, intensifying scrutiny of digital and AI-led markets, and ramping oversight in pharmaceuticals.
The authorities also signed a joint statement that, as Tshepe put it, “articulates our shared commitments to condemn cartels in all their forms, to cooperate more deeply on cross-border mergers and transnational anti-competitive practice, to incorporate development perspectives unique to BRICS economies, and to work closely with academia, legal practitioners, and research institutions”.
Closing the conference, Tshepe stressed reform over retreat. BRICS countries, she said, accept that global rules must change, but not be discarded. “There is a consensus that we need to deepen cooperation amongst BRICS competition authorities not only to build capacity and share insights but also to look at how we work together in global merger control and how we conduct enforcement at both an investigative and remedy stage,” she said.
The goal is “not to have a single approach, but rather to create space for that diversity and use cooperation to meet collective goals”, a stance she said aligns with “a more inclusive multilateral system where sovereignty is respected, participation is inclusive and mutual development is pursued”.
Tshepe concluded by handing the baton to Brazil: hosting rights for the 10th BRICS International Competition Conference in 2027 were formally transferred to Gustavo Augusto Freitas de Lima, Interim President of CADE.