Tag: Competition Act

Consumer benefits in mergers should be the central consideration when evaluating whether a merger enhances or harms the market for consumers. The Competition Tribunal recently blocked a merger between Maziv and Vodacom, two major players in South Africa's telecommunications sector.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition published draft vertical restraint regulations for comment along with a memorandum to provide context in respect of the draft regulations. These regulations relate to the prohibition on restrictive vertical practices as set out in section 5 of the Competition Act, 89 of 1998 and attempt to provide a framework on how the Competition Commission should approach practices which are potentially prohibited in terms of section 5 of the Act.

The South African Competition Commission has published its final revised Public Interest Guidelines relating to merger control. The guidelines serve to clarify the commission’s stance on public interest factors as set out in the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (as amended).

President Ramaphosa has promulgated the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act. The NHI, in its bill form, has been controversial since its introduction and has attracted significant critique from various stakeholders. It is therefore likely that the Act will be the subject of fierce litigation, sooner or later.

On Wednesday, 24 May 2023, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (MTIC) published the Energy Users Block Exemption and Energy Supplier Block Exemption. The Energy Users Block Exemption allows for collaboration between energy users to respond to the current electricity supply constraints subject to a process of notification to the Competition Commission and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).

The Competition Commission has aroused the ire of mainstream economists and analysts with its latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report for 2021 to 2022. It has charged the maize as well as the meat and poultry markets with ‘excessive pricing’.  This time, even the halls of academia through the likes of Prof. Johan Kirsten of Stellenbosch University, shook in disagreement.

The international company Meta (which owns Facebook and WhatsApp) has been referred to the Competition Tribunal, to be fined 10% of its turnover for violating Section 8 provisions of the Competition Act, which prohibit the abuse of dominance by a company.

The Competition Commission has recently referred WesBank, the car finance division of First Rand Bank, and Toyota Financial Services South Africa (TSA) to the Competition Tribunal, to be fined 10% of their turnover for the alleged violation of the Competition Act.

The Competition Commission has recently prohibited a transaction between Emerging Capital Partners Africa (ECP) and Grand Parade Investments, a private equity firm listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The transaction would have seen ECP acquire Grand Parade’s stake in Burger King South Africa (BKSA) as well as Grand Foods Meat Plant (Pty) Ltd.

The Competition Commission (the Commission) has released proposed amendments to its guidelines to small merger notification, which are set to take effect after 7 June 2021. The guidelines have been introduced to address the commission’s concerns regarding the increasing acquisitions of new innovative companies by established players, particularly in the digital markets.