Trident Steel's price fixing settlement confirmed

The Competition Tribunal on Wednesday (19 December) confirmed a settlement agreement between the Competition Commission and Trident Steel in terms of which Trident will pay a penalty of R8.6m for price fixing.

20 Dec 2012

The settlement follows a Commission investigation in which it found that Trident Steel - part of the Aveng (Africa) - and its competitor‚ Macsteel Service Centres SA‚ had contravened the Competition Act by agreeing to fix prices of all steel products manufactured by Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium.

From 2002 to 2008 both Trident Steel and Macsteel were distributors of Highveld Steel products sold into the Africa overland market.

The Commission's investigation came after it received an application for leniency‚ in 2009‚ from Macsteel. The Commission's investigation revealed that‚ while acting as distributors of Highveld Steel products‚ Trident Steel and Macsteel agreed on a premium to charge all domestic resellers and wholesalers who sold steel products manufactured by Highveld.

They did this in order to address a common problem they had encountered of resellers selling products‚ which were meant for the export market‚ into the domestic market.

The penalty represents 2% of Trident's turnover for the 2007/08 financial year.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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