Inquiry conducted: Notice issued to PFMA over anti-competitive practices

CCP also confiscated relevant documents and material

MULTAN: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued a show-cause notice to Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) for prima facie violating Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 by indulging in anti-competitive practices such as price fixing and sharing commercially sensitive information.

The commission took notice of the news reports that PFMA and its member undertakings had increased the prices of various categories of wheat and flour and its by-products between 2015 and 2016. The commission also conducted an inspection of the premises of PMFA and confiscated the relevant documents and material.

After examining the impounded record, the commission’s inquiry report concluded that PFMA had taken decisions to fix and increase the prices of flour and communicated the decisions to its members for compliance. Moreover, the executive committee of PFMA was regularly meeting, exchanging commercially sensitive information and strategic data on flour prices and allocation of quantities between 2012 and 2014.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2018.