The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has reported that artificial intelligence tools have helped identify more than 200 potential competition law violations and merger cases across multiple markets.
The CCP stated these cases were discovered through AI-driven and automated digital tools developed by its Market Intelligence Unit, which have continuously monitored markets over the last two years.
The regulator’s initiatives were detailed in a paper published in the Asia-Pacific Competition Update of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, highlighting its efforts to modernise competition law enforcement using advanced technologies.
Rapidly digitising markets and the surge in unstructured data from procurement, advertising, and financial disclosures prompted the commission to establish the Market Intelligence Unit in October 2023 for proactive, AI-driven monitoring.
The CCP’s AI monitoring systems flagged 212 potential cases, including 124 deceptive marketing incidents, 58 mergers and acquisitions, 25 cartel and trade abuse cases, and five matters relating to exemptions under the law.
An AI-driven public procurement monitoring system analyses thousands of tender documents to identify suspicious bidding patterns and potential collusion, processing tens of thousands of records in a few hours instead of several months.
The commission has also launched an automated digital market intelligence system that monitors online advertisements, social media content, and digital platforms, generating real-time alerts on misleading claims affecting consumers across multiple sectors.
In addition, the regulator has developed automated merger detection frameworks and a price monitoring dashboard, analysing stock exchange announcements, company disclosures, media reports, and regional commodity prices to detect unusual or parallel price movements promptly.
