11 March, 2018
In the last few of days, we have been seeing extraordinary developments in the long-running process of the appointment of new members of the Indonesian Competition Commission (Indonesian acronym: KPPU). On 27 February 2018, the KPPU issued a press release to the effect that effective on 28 February 2018, the KPPU is being shut down. This development is due to the House of Representatives not being able to complete its selection of new Commissioners for the President to appoint before the term of the current Commissioners was due to expire on 28 February. It appeared that the President was not able to extend the terms of the current Commissioners in time to cover until the new Commissioners could be appointed. However, on 28 February, we learned that the President has signed a Decree extending the terms of the current Commissioners until 27 April 2018 or until new Commissioners are appointed.
A shutdown of the KPPU would mean that the KPPU will cease accepting merger filings and cease processing all submitted filings. Merger filings that have entered the substantive review phase would be suspended. Likewise the KPPU would suspend all of its investigations and Court appeals. This obviously would cause delays to businesses that are dealing with KPPU and increase uncertainty for parties that are facing KPPU investigations or appealing KPPU decisions.
While today we learned that the KPPU is resuming operation, the potential for shutdown in the future remains, considering that the extended term of the current Commissioners is for two additional months only. It is not clear that the House of Representatives would be able to complete its selection of new Commissioners by then.
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