Plasser agrees to pay R8.4m penalty for collusion

6th February 2018 By: Megan van Wyngaardt - Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

Railway construction and maintenance company Plasser South Africa has agreed to pay R8.4-million in a settlement penalty after admitting to partaking in collusion.

The Competition Commission on Tuesday said it reached a settlement agreement with the company, which provides railway line track construction and maintenance services, after it admitted to participating in collusion with Lennings DEC Rail Service, a division of Aveng, for railway construction and maintenance tenders issued by State-owned enterprise Transnet between 1997 and 2013.

Lennings and Plasser agreed to allocate railway construction and maintenance tenders among themselves.

On February 1, 2014, the commissioner initiated a complaint against Plasser and Lennings. The last tender subjected to this arrangement was the Dynacat tender, which was issued by Transnet in 2004 and concluded in 2013; with the companies agreeing that the first phase of the tender would be allocated to Plasser and the second phase to Lennings.

In addition to the penalty, Plasser undertook to refrain from contravening the Competition Act in future. It would also undertake to implement and monitor a competition law compliance programme.

Lennings was earlier granted leniency in line with the commission's corporate leniency policy.

This settlement agreement, once confirmed by the Competition Tribunal, will conclude proceedings against the respondents in this matter.