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Hong Kong: Regulator wants rules preventing competition between Hong Kong’s architects to be scrapped

By  |  November 28, 2016

Hong Kong’s competition watchdog has urged two professional bodies to immediately lift restrictions that stop about 4,000 architects and 400 town planners competing by cutting their fees.

The Competition Commission said on Monday that the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and the Hong Kong Institute of Planners had failed to remove or amend “problematic provisions” in their codes of conduct relating to fees.

It noted that the Institute of Architects imposed numerous restrictions, including a prohibition against members revising fee quotations to compete with another practitioner.

The regulator stressed that although the institutes were currently exempted under the Competition Ordinance, their members might in certain cases not enjoy such protection.

Full Content: Reuters

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