The Competition Commission Amnesty Programme: What next?

(Published in MTimes 08 02 

The Competition Commission of Mauritius (CCM) has released its first batch of decisions for the Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) amnesty programme. 

Some 102 companies had signed up to the Competition Commission one-off Amnesty RPM Programme between 05 June 2017 and 20 October 2017. RPM is a particular form of restrictive business practice whereby a supplier restricts the ability of its resellers to reduce prices of its products. RPM is therefore a pricing restriction and can take different forms: such as the imposition of a fixed or minimum price or a price range at which the product must be sold. Resellers may voluntarily agree to the price set by the supplier or may be coerced into doing so by the supplier.

The media release shows that of the 102 applications received, 36 were from Company groups featuring in The Top 100 companies. Most of the applications (52%) came from suppliers/distributors (operating at the upstream level of the supply chain). 43% of the companies were generating above Rs 1 billion turnover, of which 68% were from resellers That RPM was also prevalent among smaller companies with a turnover of less than Rs 100 million which constituted 25% of the total applicants. 

The competition authorities are exulting because of the high number of applications received by the Competition Commission which they consider as a confirmation of the success of their enforcement strategy of opting for a collaborative approach, instead of the usual stringent investigative procedures.

But that’s the easy way out and we, customers, cannot let the CCM off the hook so easily. We want to hold them more accountable for the level of competition in the economy. After having been cleared off the 102 companies, including the corporates, of their crimes of having cheated us, the consumers, and hiked their abnormal profits at our expense, we need more than the commitment that they will be implementing compliance measures at their end in exchange for immunity. Otherwise it will be just a licence for them to continue fleecing us till the next amnesty programme. 

Our competition watchdog- a competition regulator which is a proud custodian of such an important role of making the economy work better for all – cannot restrict itself to its present low key and toothless role. Competition policy should be made a political priority and more resources allocated for policing competition and to systematically open up markets that appear to be closed or rigged.

We need more of dynamism and openness from the CCM - in terms of close monitoring and effective enforcement and regular reports on the state of competition in the economy. We want to see more cases being investigated and brought to courts, actions against cartels, policing of mergers and dealing with dominant firms that abuse their position. In short, A CCM that not only barks but bites and makes a difference to consumers.