The Competition Tribunal would on Monday resume its hearing into a complaint, brought by the Competition Commission against South African Breweries (SAB), in December 2007, regarding the company’s distribution system and claims that it abused its market dominance.
The hearing would run from July 22 to August 16, with closing arguments to be heard on September 2 and 3.
The commission alleges that SAB’s agreements with its appointed distributors divided markets between competitors, which is in contravention of the Competition Act, adding that SAB favoured its distributors at the expense of independent distributors, placing independent distributors at a disadvantage in the market.
Further, the commission says SAB abused its dominance by requiring retail outlets not to deal with its competitors, placing them at a disadvantage in the beer market.
SAB has denied the commission’s allegations.
The parties have agreed to deal with the allegations relating to the distributors for the time being and to handle the allegations of abuse of dominance at a later stage.
A hearing relating to the distribution and abuse of dominance allegations by the commission initially started in August 2010, but ceased in April 2011, after the tribunal granted an application by SAB to dismiss the commission’s complaint on procedural grounds. In its dismissal application, SAB argued that the commission had gone beyond its mandate when it referred the allegations to the tribunal as it did.
The commission appealed this decision at the Competition Appeal Court, which found that that the commission’s complaint referral had been properly made.
To date, the tribunal has heard all the commission’s factual witnesses, including Big Daddy’s Liquor Distributors’ Nico Pitsiladi and Peter Pitsiladi, the original complainants in the commission’s case.