ISLAMABAD: The Com­petition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has imposed Rs1 billion and Rs100 million penalties, respectively, on Haier and DEL/Dawlance for entering into resale price maintenance (RPM) arrangements with their dealers as price-fixing is a violation of competition laws of the country.

The fines were imposed after the hearings by a CCP bench headed by chairperson Rahat Kaunain Hassan and Member Mujtaba Ahmad Lodhi.

The CCP decision pointed out that a much higher and stricter penalty needed to be imposed on Haier, considering the violations by the company and promoting a compliance-oriented approach by them. It imposed a penalty of Rs1bn on Haier, not exceeding 3 per cent of its annual turnover in 2020-21.

The CCP had initiated an inquiry into the alleged contravention of Section 4 of the Competition Act by “electronic appliance manufacturers, distributors/dealers and their respective trade associations”.

For DEL/Dawlance, CCP restricted the penalty amount to Rs100m, not exceeding 1pc of its turnover in 2020-21.

The evidence showed that both Haier and DEL/Dawlance had restricted their dealers from selling products below a certain price, not to provide any discounts or package deals and imposed penalties including sanctions on their dealers to monitor and implement their respective pricing policies.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2022