Kenya moves to shield consumers from online market abuses with tough new bill
CAK boss David Kem noted that digital platforms have increasingly become hotspots for sophisticated anti-competitive practices, with businesses using complex algorithms and systems to exploit consumers while evading detection.
Online traders, digital lenders, and social media vendors could soon face stricter penalties — including fines of up to Sh10 million and prison terms of up to five years — for mistreating consumers if new proposals by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) are passed by Parliament.
The proposed penalties are outlined in the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to grant CAK legal powers to oversee and regulate businesses operating within Kenya’s fast-expanding digital economy.
More To Read
- CBK: Gaps in digital lending sector fuel risk of money laundering, terror financing
- Competition Authority opposes proposal to reserve 60 per cent of logistics business for Kenyans
- Kenya moves closer to crypto regulation as MPs back joint oversight of digital asset sector
- CA cracks down on landlords blocking internet providers in estates
- Kenyans borrow Sh15 billion monthly as financial woes deepen - report
- CBK approves 27 more digital lenders to offer credit services in Kenya
If enacted, the Bill would introduce sweeping reforms that formally place digital sectors — including e-commerce, digital lending, and social media trading — under CAK’s regulatory scope. The provisions would also extend to international tech companies providing services in Kenya.
“We are hopeful that our legislators will see the wisdom of amending that Act to give us the legal muscle and mandate to regulate online markets, digital markets, e-commerce, which is actually gaining momentum in our country,” CAK Director-General David Kemei said in an interview with the Business Daily.
Kemei said that digital platforms have become breeding grounds for sophisticated anti-competitive behaviour, where businesses hide behind complex algorithms and systems to exploit consumers.
“We know that in digital markets, it is possible for businesspeople to use very complex platforms and algorithms to hide practices that are anti-competitive, and that’s why some complaints have been emanating from that sector,” he said.
No legal framework
The authority says it has received most complaints from the e-commerce and digital lending sectors.
However, Kemei noted that the agency currently lacks the legal framework to effectively intervene.
“We’ve heard complaints about digital lenders charging high interest rates and cases where they are using different currencies from ours, and those are the consumer issues we need to deal with,” he said.
“There’ve also been cases that border on criminality, like where someone buys some goods online or virtually, and then those goods are never delivered.”
Under the proposed law, the CAK would gain oversight over a broad range of digital services, including search engines, online advertising, cloud computing, operating systems, social media platforms and online communication services.
The move is part of a broader regional push to rein in digital market abuse.
The idea to regulate online commerce was mooted during the Africa Heads of Competition Dialogue held in February 2022.
At the meeting, authorities from Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco resolved to work together in regulating digital trade across the continent.
The Competition (Amendment) Bill is currently awaiting tabling in the National Assembly.
If passed, it would grant the Authority the power to penalise violators with fines of up to Sh10 million and prison terms of up to five years for offences linked to digital market misconduct.
Top Stories Today
