On Tuesday the tribunal said Afriworld 142 Ltd agreed to pay an administrative penalty of R188,936 for its involvement in a furniture removal cartel in 28 instances of cover pricing, a form of collusion, in the provision of furniture removal services from about 2007 until at least 2012.
Cover pricing is a practice whereby one or more firms agree to submit tenders in such a way that a designated winner will submit the lowest or most favourable bid and the other will submit artificially high bids not intended to win the contract. “The 28 instances involved, among others, tenders issued by the department of water affairs and forestry, Eskom, the SA Police Service, the department of health and the SA National Defence Force.”
The company’s admission followed a 2010 investigation into alleged collusive conduct in the market for the provision of furniture removal services.The investigation revealed that furniture removal companies, including Afriworld, concluded agreements and engaged in concerted practices to tender collusively in the provision of furniture removal services to government departments, big corporates and private individuals.
“The collusion appeared to have started around 2007 to at least 2012. The commission found Afriworld, Sifikile Transport CC, Matthee Furniture Removals CC and JH Retief Transport CC had bilateral arrangements and colluded in respect of 28 instances of cover pricing. It concluded that the conduct amounted to price fixing and/or the fixing of trading conditions in contravention of the act,” the tribunal said.
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