Category: collusion

South Africa targets private healthcare sector in CC’s ‘market investigation’

Posted on by andreasstargard

south_africa

As reported today by Reuters and SA MoneyWeb, the South African government has announced that the South African Competition Commission will launch an investigation into the private healthcare sector. This is part of a larger initiative to conduct so-called “market inquiries,” on which we previously reported here and here, and which are a direct consequence of the March 2013 effective date of the South African Competition Amendment Act of 2009.

The Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said that “[v]arious stakeholders have raised concerns about pricing, costs and the state of competition and innovation in private healthcare.”

Likely affected companies are all major players in the healthcare industry, including providers such as Life Healthcare, Mediclinic International and Netcare Ltd.

Dutch suit against “paraffin mafia” cartel moves forward

Posted on by andreasstargard

south_africa

A Dutch district court has set what some believe may be a new landmark precedent in the area of private cartel enforcement in the European Union, including against South African company Sasol.

The case is what appears to be a fairly straight-forward “follow-on” civil action, i.e., a complaint brought in civil court by injured parties (or those who acquired those parties’ rights to sue) that is based entirely on a European Union Commission decision condemning illegal cartel activity within the common EU market.

My neighbors on the Avenue Louise here in Brussels, CDC (Cartel Damages Claims), had bought the rights to sue from various purchasers of paraffin wax and lodged the complaint against the “paraffin mafia” (Shell’s words, quoted by Neelie Kroes – also see here) in September 2011. The 13-year cartel (1992-2005)** may well result in sizeable civil damage awards (Sasol’s reduced EC fine alone was 318 million €) once the procedural and jurisdictional hurdles have been cleared. And this most recent ruling goes a long way in doing so. The key “procedural issues” that had to be resolved first were whether all of the cartel members could be sued in the Netherlands, even though not all of them operated in that country, and whether the pending EU court appeals against the 2008 Commission decision effectively stayed the parallel civil proceedings in the Dutch court.

The court ruled in favour of the plaintiff group on both accounts, holding that all cartelists could be sued together for damages in the jurisdiction in which any one of their fellow co-conspirators has its seat [here, that would notably be Royal Dutch Shell, ironically the cartel’s whistle-blower that escaped the EC ruling with a zero-€ fine] . That is, even though purported ring-leader Sasol or any of the other [non-Dutch] alleged cartelists may not have had any operations in the Netherlands, they can still be subject to a full-blown civil lawsuit there. In effect, the ruling says that the European Union’s antitrust decisions, combined with the civil protections afforded EU companies and citizens, creates a de facto long-arm statute, reaching beyond the traditional geographic jurisdictional boundaries.

In addition, it held that a pending appeal against an EC cartel decision should not result in an automatic stay of any civil proceedings, as this would unduly curtail the fundamental right to seek compensation of injured parties under EU law.

While I don’t read Dutch — and therefore cannot analyse the actual decision of the NL royal court — I trust that CDC summarised its findings accurately, even though the company clearly has a stake in this and thus a likely bias.

** According to Neelie Kroes’s speech, the cartelists initially met at the “Blue Salon” at a Hamburg hotel bar (my home town, coincidentally). I have a feeling it was this place — it’s always fun to visualise cartel activity in the flesh, just like “The Informant” did for moviegoers in 2009…:

Blauer Saal Kempinski Hamburg

Details of $2.9 billion bid-rigging come to light in South African parliament

Posted on by andreasstargard

south_africa

As SAcommercialPropNews reports, the South African Parliament heard testimony from the chairman of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Mr. Bafana Ndendwa, on the developments and results of the South African Competition Commission’s investigation into the building industry at large.

The investigation into the potential 26 billion Rand collusion had begun when building budgets related to the 2010 FIFA soccer world cup in South Africa were plagued with cost overruns.  Since then, it appears that well over 40 construction companies have been investigated by the Commission.  We had previously reported on antitrust settlements in the S.A. building industry here.

Even with some settlements underway, the building-industry antitrust saga appears far from over, though.  Creating a spectre of double jeopardy, Mr. Ndendwa stated that leniency from the Commission may not yield similar treatment by other investigating bodies.  The cited article also quotes members of the ‘Portfolio Committee’ of the Parliament as pressing for criminal charges to be filed.  This is an interesting development, as the South African competition law (as it is currently in effect) does not [yet] provide for criminal sanctions against individuals.  While the law had been amended to include such a provision, the amendments have not yet been ratified and put into effect.

Ironic? S.A. & Russia to “influence” platinum market “without cartel”

Posted on by andreasstargard

Russia south_africa

South Africa and Russia plan to “influence” global platinum market “without cartel” — [it escapes the author how this is possible].

Russia and South Africa, who together hold approximately 80% of worldwide platinum reserves, have signed a provisional agreement to co-ordinate efforts to control the global platinum market. Details of the plan emerged at the fifth summit of emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (“BRICS”), held in Durban, South Africa last week.

South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum, controlling approximately 70% market share, whilst Russia is the world’s top palladium producer, accounting for approximately 40% of the palladium market; Russia notably also holds a further 10% of the platinum market. The two countries jointly possess almost complete market dominance over platinum. The only other significant reserve of platinum that has been extracted outside of Russia and South Africa is in Canada’s Yukon territory, accounting for approximately 3% of the worldwide reserves. In recent years, platinum producers have faced rising production costs and a drop in prices, due to poor demand for the metal.

Therefore, as Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy explained the purpose of the provisional agreement, “Our goal is to co-ordinate our actions accordingly to expand the markets. The price depends on the structure of the market, and we will form the structure of the market.”

South African Mining Minister Susan Shabangu confirmed the plan with Russia, saying: “We’re not really controlling the market” and “We want to contribute without creating a cartel, but we want to influence the markets.” The South African Department of Trade and Industry Director-General, Lionel October, said, in support of other comments by Shabangu that “We will give access to minerals and then incentivise companies to add value locally.”

Russia and South Africa’s plans may be derailed due to competition concerns, however.  For example, previous attempts at consolidation within the platinum industry have raised red antitrust flags and were ultimately abandoned. In 1996, Lonmin and Gencor lost an appeal against a European Commission decision blocking the planned merger of their South African platinum mines (Case No. IV/M.619, Commission decision of April 24, 1996). This was the first E.C. decision prohibiting a merger on collective dominance grounds. The Court of First Instance (now called the EU’s General Court) upheld the decision of the Commission, validating its concerns that the merger would result in collective global platinum market dominance (Case T-102/96).

S.A. Competition Tribunal confirms 2 new settlements

Posted on by andreasstargard

south_africa

South Africa’s highest governmental competition authority, the Competition Tribunal, has approved two settlement agreements reached by the lower Competition Commission with Air Products South Africa and MVA Bricks / MVA Stene, respectively.

These relate to collusive behaviour in various business sectors, including the building sector which had been investigated by the antitrust watchdog for an extensive period of time.

The former settlement requires Air Products to pay a penalty of almost R2.8 million (about USD300,000) for purported market allocation between it and Sasol Chemical Industries in the industrial gases market. The undertaking published a press release, noting that:

“Air Products has agreed to amend the suite of agreements with Sasol to remove any provisions that contravene the Competition Act; to develop, implement and monitor a (renewed and enhanced) competition law compliance programme incorporating corporate governance designed to ensure that its employees, management, directors and agents do not engage in future contraventions of the Competition Act; and to refrain from engaging in anti-competitive conduct in the future.

“Air Products intends to implement further internal measures to inculcate an increased awareness of the Competition Act and to ensure compliance with the competition laws of South Africa going forward, to ensure that no further inadvertent contraventions of the Competition Act take place.”

The latter settlement with MVA Bricks calls for a R672 565 penalty for collusion between MVA and Aveng Africa in the market for generic paving blocks.