Furniture movers in trouble over e-toll price fixing
THE FURNITURE removal industry is in trouble again for engaging in anti-competitive practices.
The Competition Commission said yesterday that it had recommended the prosecution of 11 companies and the association they belong to by the Competition Tribunal for fixing the price of the e-tolls levy they charged customers when transporting goods on Gauteng’s highways.
The implicated companies include the Northern Provinces Professional Movers Association of South Africa (NPPMA), Stuttaford Van Lines Gauteng Hub, Pickfords Removals SA, A& B Movers, Brytons Removals, Amazing Transport, Key Moves CC, Bayley Worldwide CC, Selection Cartage, Elliot Mobility, Crown Relocations and Magna Thomson.
Sipho Ngwema, the head of communications at the Competition Commission, confirmed yesterday that there were currently three separate cases that implicated furniture removal companies in anti-competitive practices.
Ngwema said the e-toll case followed an investigation launched by the commission in February, which revealed these furniture removal companies agreed under the auspices of the NPPMA to add a levy of R350 to the amount they charged their customers for transporting furniture on Gauteng highways that had e-tolls.
He said the practice, which had been in existence since January 2014, constituted price fixing and was a contravention of the Competition Act.
Ngwema said the commission wanted the tribunal to issue an order that these companies and the NPPMA had contravened the Competition Act and were thus liable for an administrative penalty equivalent to 10 percent of their respective annual turnover.
The commission initiated its first complaint against furniture removal companies in November 2010. The probe into alleged collusive conduct in contraven- tion of the act formed part of a probe into 69 companies offering furniture removal services.
It found that more than 3 500 relocation tenders were subjected to collusion by 43 furniture removal companies between 2007 and 2012.
Most of these companies reached settlement agreements with the commission related to these contraventions.
Stuttaford Van Lines is one of the companies that has not settled and has been charged with 649 counts of collusive tendering.
The third case followed commission investigators in October 2015 raiding the premises of four furniture removal firms, one for the second time in five years, in a co-ordinated operation because it suspected anti-competitive practices.