Firms agree to competition penalty for unintentionally contravening the Competition Act

The Competition Tribunal has confirmed, as an order, a consent agreement wherein four firms admit that they unintentionally contravened the Competition Act, specifically that parties to a large merger may not implement that merger until it has been approved, with or without conditions, by the Competition Commission. The parties were said to have implemented a transaction prior to the approval of the transaction by the commission and agreed to jointly pay an administrative penalty of R1.49-million.