THE Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) will put in motion its first ever competition case against dishonest distributors and wholesalers for violation of market competition rules, and anti-competitive conduct.
FCCC chief legal counsel David Solvalu said preliminary assessments by the institution found a disparity in the offering of rebates, specials, and related pricing practices.
“Subsequent to the post-COVID-19 market monitoring efforts, FCCC had identified concerns within the supermarket sector,” Mr Solvalu said.
“We observed that distributors and wholesalers seemed to selectively provide these benefits to specific supermarkets, with conditions or requirements which are anti-competitive.
“This practice puts certain supermarkets at a disadvantage, hindering their ability to compete effectively on prices and services and we hope to initiate our first competition enforcement action this month to address these practices.”
He said historically, FCCC has always used a soft touch approach with competition regulation, hoping to allow market forces to play out and self-regulation to prevail but now it was time to “take a more proactive approach with enforcement to ensure that markets are competitive”.
“Competitive markets lead to better service delivery, lower prices, and innovation, all of which ultimately benefit the consumer. While business by its very nature is rivalrous and even ruthless, there is a line which can’t be crossed.
“We are prepared to fix that line in the market clearly, and this case will be just the first of many to do just that.”
FCCC chief executive officer (CEO) Joel Abraham said the reason why they’re now taking proactive measures is to help the grocery sector “to be able to bring itself to equilibrium and the markets be able to give better outcomes to consumers”.
“However, if the market fails, we will not hesitate to put in regulatory interventions and take people to court. We want the markets to work – for seven years, we have allowed for competition advocacy, educated people on what competition is and why it matters, held a series of public lectures and put out countless articles, done talkback shows and stakeholder meetings,” he said.
“We will not sit by and allow the market to continuously engage in practices that undermine the competition because competition ultimately means consumer welfare is improved.”
