Malaysia’s competition law came into force in January 2012. Detailed guidelines on the leniency programme were published in October 2014. Despite the leniency programme being designed based on best practices found in more mature competition regimes and the International Competition Network, the leniency programme has been underutilised in the cartel cases investigated in Malaysia. The underutilisation of the leniency programme could be due to the enforcement agency having too many discretionary powers. Another reason could be the lack of immunisation from civil proceedings. De facto government oversight and spillovers from deterioration in the country’s state of governance in the past could also have affected the public’s perception of quasi-independent commissions. This is reflected in the perceptions of the business community of courts and corruption in the country.