The Competition Commission on Thursday said it had fined Durban based company which manufactures unsaturated polyester resins, NCS Resins (Pty) Ltd (NCS), R29.7 million for cartel conduct.
Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said NCS admitted to price fixing and market division transgressions.
“As part of its settlement agreement, NCS has agreed to cooperate fully with the Commission’s investigation and the firm will set up a competition law compliance programme as part of its corporate governance policy.”
Ngwema said this agreement followed an investigation, launched in July last year, which found that NCS had colluded with Scott Bader (Pty) Ltd (Scott Bader) to fix the price of resins, ancillaries and catalysts and divide the market by allocating customers.
"The investigation uncovered that employees from both companies regularly exchanged prices and customer information. They used this information to determine prices at which they would sell their products to mutual customers. They also used the information to determine future price increases."
Ngwema added that the companies had also agreed not to supply customers who had overdue accounts with either or both companies and agreed not to target each other’s potential customers. In addition, they agreed not to undercut each other in respect of mutual customers.
