Restrictive horizontal practices

The Competition Act restricts and in some instances prohibits cooperation between competitors.

The Competition Act distinguishes between practices that are prohibited regardless of whether they have any anticompetitive consequences and practices that are prohibited only if the parties to the agreement or practice fail to prove that the practice has pro-competitive effects which outweigh any anticompetitive effects.

The Act lists the following restrictive horizontal practices that are prohibited automatically (“per se”):

• directly or indirectly fixing a purchase or selling price or any other trading condition
• dividing markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories, or specific types of goods or services
• collusive tendering

An administrative penalty of up to 10% of the transgressing firm’s annual turnover during the firm’s preceding financial year may be imposed on first-time offenders of these prohibitions.