The Competition Tribunal has confirmed two settlement agreements; one between the Competition Commission and Air Products South Africa and the other between the commission and MVA Bricks.
As part of the settlement agreement, in February, Air Products South Africa agreed to pay an administrative penalty of about R2.76-million to South Africa’s competition authorities.
This followed a concession by the company that its agreement with Sasol Chemical Industries had given rise to price fixing and market allocation, resulting in the prevention of competition in the industrial gases market.
In addition, the tribunal confirmed an agreement in which MVA Bricks undertook to pay an administrative penalty of R672 565, or 2.5% of its affected turnover for the financial year ended February 2011, after admitting that it had entered into an agreement with Aveng Africa which contravened the Competition Act.
This settlement followed an investigation by the commission, which found that Aveng Africa, trading as Infraset; Bosun Brick Midrand; Cast Industries; Concor Technicrete; Vibro Bricks and MVA Bricks, had fixed the selling price of generic paving blocks in contravention of the Competition Act.