From Fin24
Cape Town – The Competition Commission has referred three recruitment specialists to the Competition Tribunal on charges of price fixing.
“The Competition Commission has decided to prosecute three advertising practitioners specialising in recruitment advertising services for price fixing, market division and collusive tendering,” it said in a statement on Thursday.
The action follows an investigation by the commission, which found that Human Communications, Kone Staffing and Jobvest discussed and agreed on prices at which to quote their customers.
Their services include linking job seekers to potential employers and assisting their clients to place advertisements in newspapers, the commission said.
“They also receive and process responses to the advertisements on behalf of clients,” it said, adding that their main clients are government departments and municipalities.
The firms discussed their responses to requests for quotations and decided on the price which each would tender for its services, it said.
They then agreed on how to rotate advertising work among each other. “This constitutes price fixing, market division and collusive tendering in contravention … of the Competition Act.”
An agreement to engage in collusion is presumed as they had a director in common between 2006 and 2015, the commission said.
“The commission is of the view that the respondents were engaged in horizontal restrictive practices (a relationship between competitors at the same level).”
“As the Commission we remain steadfast in our commitment to rooting out collusive and anti-competitive practices which impact negatively on South Africa’s quest towards an inclusive economy and job creation,” said the Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele. – Fin24
Source: http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Labour/News/sa-job-recruiters-charged-for-price-fixing-20170309
