No cartel cases yet, says ICCC

The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) currently has no cases about cartels, an officer said yesterday.
Cartel conduct is an agreement by competitors (or likely competitors) to coordinate their prices or output in order to increase their collective profit.
ICCC manager restrictive trade practices Grace Misina said ICCC was working on a leniency policy to identify cartel operations in the country.
“The leniency policy is one that we are working on,” she told The National yesterday.
“We will bring it out for publishing beginning of next year.
“That’s basically telling companies who are engaged in cartel conducts, who know something, you can come to us and tell us what you know, what prices have been set, who are the companies are in that cartel, how often they meet.
“You tell us that information and if we are satisfied and if you continue to provide us the information, you are 100 per cent immune.
“We will not prosecute because you’re the first one who came forward and if the second, third or fourth comes, probably those are the ones we will have to prosecute.”
Misina said there could be signs of cartel conducting activities in PNG where the economy was small.
“You will have two or three major suppliers and you will see the prices can be really close together,” she said.
“It makes you wonder because businesses are supposed to compete, they are supposed to be innovative, supposed to be putting competitive prices so customers go to the cheapest price and the best product.
“When that is not happening, one must ask: Why is it that their prices are almost the same and their products are almost the same? Are they talking to each other?
“It can be a sign that there is competition and they do not want a price that is K5 or K10 apart because customers may go to the cheaper or they are talking to each other and organising themselves.
“So it is really difficult to detect until one of them comes to ICCC and says that they have been talking to each other.”
Misina said cartel conducts were normally done by people high up the management chain.
“It is in the leadership positions that go into agreements,” she said.
“Those further down the chain do not know what is happening up there.”