South Africa: Competition Appeals Court dismisses antitrust case against SABMiller

South Africa's Competition Appeals Court has dismissed a long-running antitrust case against SABMiller, upholding a previous decision by a sister tribunal that there was not enough evidence to prove the brewer is breaking the law, The Economic Times reported on February 3.

The Competition Commission - which investigates and refers cases to the Competition Tribunal for a ruling - was appealing a decision by the tribunal, arguing that SABMiller had broken the law by giving its appointed distributors discounts and making it difficult for those without such discounts to compete.

The commission had also argued that the brewer, which has about 90 per cent of the beer market in Africa's most advanced economy, was carrying out price discrimination.

However, the appeals court said in its judgment on February 2 that the commission had failed to establish that the alleged price discrimination would have the likely effect of substantially preventing or lessening competition.

04 February, 2015