ICC and Public Prosecutor’s Office Manage to Execute Sanctions on Business Actors Absent From Complying With Decisions.

Jakarta (7/11) – A collaboration between Indonesia Competition Commission (ICC) and the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia, the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration (Jamdatun) in particular has begun to successfully execute sanctions on business actors absent from complying with the sanctions in the form of fines imposed by ICC in Decisions on business competition violations. This has been shown by the fulfillment of the fines by a Reported Party sentenced by ICC in three Decisions on tender conspiracy cases, the collection process of which has undergone a tough process for more than 9 (nine) years by ICC. Through such collaboration with the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration, the Reported Party absent from abiding by has eventually fulfilled the stipulated sanction in the shape of fines. This came to the fore in the meeting held by the Chairman of ICC M. Afif Hasbullah and Feri Wibisono, SH, C.N., the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration at the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia in Jakarta today. Also attending the said meeting were the Secretariat officials of ICC, among other things, the Director of Investigation Gopprera Panggabean and the Head of the Legal Bureau Ima Damayanti.

For one’s information, ICC and the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on June 4, 2021 to coordinate the discharge of the duties and functions of the two institutions, including the handling of civil affairs, tracing and recovering of assets, and exchanging of data and information. ICC and the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration in particular established further cooperation to implement the memorandum of understanding. The aforementioned collaboration with the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration has been implemented since September 9, 2021 covering, among other things, the following scopes:

• the provision of legal assistance by State Attorneys (JPN) in both civil cases and state administrative cases conducted by way of litigation and non-litigation;
• the provision of legal considerations by State Attorneys by way of giving legal opinions and/or legal assistance in the field of civil affairs and state administration and/or audits in the field of civil affairs;
• legal actions, inter alia, the provision of legal services by State Attorneys outside of law enforcement, legal considerations in the context of saving and recovering state finance/assets, as well as other collaborations such as human resource competence building, and mitigating legal risks.

One of the objectives of such collaboration is to improve the capability of executing the Decisions of ICC that have had a permanent legal force. At the moment, there are still 109 Decisions of ICC having had a permanent legal force, but they have yet to be executed. There are 319 Reported Parties being absent from executing such Decisions, with a total amount of fines not yet paid of IDR341 billion. One of the purposes of the cooperation between ICC and the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia is to assist the said execution processes, both by way of litigation and non-litigation. Therefore, it is possible that the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia will criminally indict and sentence the Reported Parties absent from executing the Decisions of ICC that have had a permanent legal force.

The implementation of collaborations has been begun with the execution process of the decisions of ICC that have yet to be fulfilled by the Reported Party for a long time, particularly after undergoing various persuasive processes as conducted by ICC. There are 3 (three) Decisions of ICC being executed together with the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration, namely Decision No. 08/KPPU-L/2010, Decision No. 10/KPPU-L/2010, and Decision No. 14/KPPU-L/2010. The said three Decisions constitute a pilot project in the implementation of the said collaboration. In this regard, ICC collaborates with the Jambi Chief Prosecutor’s Office and the Muara Bungo District Prosecutor’s Office in executing such decision against the Reported Party, namely PT Bungo Pantai Berudara, the legal domicile of which is in Muaro Bungo, Jambi Province. ICC had previously tried to execute such decision for more than 9 (nine) years after the decision had a permanent legal force in 2013, however, the execution process conducted by ICC had yet to bear fruit because the Reported Party side was unwilling to pay for the fine. The execution process eventually bore fruit following the engagement of the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration and the said two Public Prosecutor’s Offices.

Apart from the aforementioned three decisions, ICC and the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration also made persuasive efforts against the Reported Party in Decision of ICC No. 10/KPPU-I/2015 that had had a permanent legal force in 2020. Through such process in 2022,  the Reported Party eventually made a commitment to fulfill the payment of the competition fine worth IDR3.4 billion to be remitted as a Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP).

The cooperation efforts of these two institutions will continue, mainly in the execution process of competition fines against Reported Parties in order to abide by Decisions of ICC. Such success is for sure closely linked to the actions taken by the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration. Therefore, the Chairman of ICC highly appreciates the effective cooperation done by the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia, particularly the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Affairs and State Administration in today’s meeting that has enhanced the compliance of Reported Parties with the execution of Decisions. It is targeted that all the Decisions that have had a permanent legal force that cannot be executed by ICC will be collaboratively and jointly conducted with the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia for their execution in order to enhance the effectiveness of the enforcement of competition law in Indonesia.