Pretoria - Seven companies specialising in supplying,
installing and maintaining fire control and protection systems have been
referred by the Competition Commission to the Competition Tribunal for
prosecution for price fixing and other contraventions of the Competition Act.
The companies are Afrion Property Services CC, Belfa
Fire, Cross Fire Management, Fire Protection Systems, Fireco, Fireco Gauteng
and Tshwane Fire Sprinklers CC.
The referral followed the search and seizure dawn raid by
commission investigators in March 2015 on the offices of six Gauteng based
firms as part of an investigation into alleged collusive conduct in the market
for the provision of fire control and protection systems.
This included the installation and maintenance of
automatic sprinkler systems, hydrants, hose reels and extinguishers.
Sipho Ngwema, a spokesperson for the commission, said on
Wednesday the investigation found that, from at least 1996 to 2015, the
companies entered into agreements and/or engaged in a concerted practice to fix
prices, divide markets and tendered collusively in relation to tenders for
supplying, installing and maintaining fire control and protection systems.
Read also: Competition Commission to tackle anti-competitive behaviour
Ngwema said the investigation also revealed that the
collusive conduct by these companies, which operate in South Africa and the
rest of the continent, was carried out through bilateral and multilateral
agreements using exchange of cover prices through sharing of bills of
quantities, telephone, faxes, emails and occasional meetings.
He said the firms also agreed to “respect” each other’s
allocated customers by not bidding competitively for tenders issued by those
customers.
Ngwema said the commission was seeking an order from the
tribunal declaring that the companies had contravened the Competition Act and
were liable to pay a maximum administrative penalty equal to 10 percent of
their annual turnover.