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The Tribunal has confirmed, as an order, a consent agreement concluded between the Competition Commission (the Commission) and Japanese firm, T.RAD Company Limited (T.RAD) in respect of alleged contraventions of section 4(1)(b) of the Competition Act (the Act) i.e. restrictive horizontal practices between competitors or cartel conduct.
 
T.RAD does not admit that it had contravened section 4(1)(b) of the Act. However, it has agreed to the following, among others, in terms of the consent agreement:
 

to pay an administrative penalty of R500 000 (five hundred thousand Rand);

to circulate a summary of the consent agreement to its employees, managers and directors;

to refrain from engaging in conduct in contravention of section 4(1)(b) of the Act in future;

to continue with and monitor its existing competition law compliance programme as part of its corporate governance policy; and

to engage in competitive practices in future.

 
The Tribunal’s order and the consent agreement will be made available on the Tribunal website in due course at www.comptrib.co.za
 
Background
 
According to the consent agreement, the Commission “received information that suggests that T.RAD and Denso (Denso Corporation, a company incorporated under the company laws of Japan) allegedly concluded a general agreement and/or were party to concerted practices to fix prices that they would quote to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), divide markets and tender collusively in respect of Requests for Quotations (RFQs) … in contravention of sections 4(1)(b)(i), 4(1)(b)(ii) and 4(1)(b)(iii) of the Act.”
 
After investigating, the Commission concluded that T.RAD and Denso had colluded in respect of over 40 cartel instances. The Commission considers their conduct to constitute price fixing, division of markets and collusive tendering in contravention of the Act.

Issued by The Competition Tribunal