Astral settles poultry case
The Competition Commission has reached a settlement agreement with Astral Operations after Astral admitted to colluding with its competitor to fix the price of fresh poultry in the Western Cape
Astral has also admitted that the terms of its Elite joint venture was an abuse of dominance and had an exclusionary effect undermining Country Bird's ability to compete.
Astral has agreed to pay an administrative penalty amounting to R16.7m or 3% of County Fair's (a division of Astral) fresh poultry revenue in the Western Cape for the 2008 financial year.
As part of the agreement‚ Astral has undertaken not to engage in any conduct that contravenes the Competition Act‚ to co-operate with the Commission in any on-going investigations and to submit its pricing data to the South African Poultry Association via third party statisticians and in a form that is aggregated across all product categories and pack sizes.