Currently the Competition Act is being reviewed in order to tighten the rules regulating competition. The amendments that may be proposed would not deal with the entire Act and all aspects surrounding competition law. Instead the review is aimed at increasing the Competition Commission’s ability to prevent market domination and price collusion.
The review process is however not at a stage yet where the amendments will take effect tomorrow. Cabinet will first need to approve the proposed amendments after which all interested parties will be invited to submit comments to this piece of legislation. It is therefore pertinent that
businesses which may be sailing quite close to dominance or price collusion to take serious notice of the amendments as the impact could be tremendous as we have recently seen in Mittal’s R619.8 million fine imposed by the Competition Tribunal.
Tshediso Matona, the director- general of the Department of Trade and Industry, said they will do their best to have to amendments passed through Parliament this year in order to have the amendments become law before the end of the year. However it is more than likely that we will only see the amendments become law by early 2008. Businesses should therefore take a close look at our website and news reports for any news when the proposed amendments would be published for public comment. The review forms part of a review of all economic regulators by the government. The main aim is to give these regulators more teeth.