A group of civil society organisations along with the Competition Commission have withdrawn their Constitutional Court appeal, which they had hoped would enable victims in the Western Cape bread price-fixing cartel to sue Premier Foods.
The Constitutional Court was expected to hear the matter on Tuesday but the parties withdrew their application last week.
They had planned to challenge a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that effectively let Premier Foods off the hook for its role in the 2006 bread cartel, by setting aside a declaration that opened it up to lawsuits.
Without the declaration, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the National Consumer Forum, the Children's Resource Centre Trust and other parties that are planning a class action against the bread cartelists cannot sue Premier Foods.
Premier Foods, which makes Blue Ribbon bread and owns brands such as Snowflake, Iwisa and Dove, was granted immunity under the Competition Commission's corporate leniency policy in exchange for assisting it in the investigation of the cartel.
It argued that the certification declaring that it had acted unlawfully under competition laws should not have been issued against it because it had immunity and the Supreme Court of Appeal agreed.
Charles Abrahams, lawyer for the alleged victims, said previously that the application for class action certification, currently pending before the Western Cape High Court, against the cartelists would continue with or without Premier Foods.
Pioneer Foods was fined R195.7m for its involvement in the cartel while Tiger Brands and Foodcorp negotiated fines of more than R98m and R45m respectively.
Source: BDpro via I-Net Bridge
