Business community learns the dos and don’ts of fair trading |25 June 2012

The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) hosted a workshop last week with the aim of educating the business community about the Fair Trading Act, which has been in application since 2009.
The workshop was held at the Seychelles Trading Company’s conference room.

Those present learned about the guidelines on practices that are not legal under the Act, especially abuse of dominance which was a point of focus at the session.

Abuse of dominance is, for example, when a business does predatory pricing and drives out potential competitors by lowering its prices so much that rivals are not able to stay in that particular market.

After this move, the business then raises its prices again.
Abuse of dominance is also when a business drives up its prices so much that consumers are affected, especially when the type of services offered by such a company is very limited.

Others still, when in a position of superiority in the business community, refuse to do business with other smaller companies, which is also illegal.

The FTC director of communications and corporate services Luciana Lagrenade said it is perfectly normal for a business to have dominance in a market, but however, once that dominance is abused, then the law has to be applied.

The FTC explained that once they receive a complaint about a business doing these illegal activities, they intervene and assess the situation before appropriate action is taken.

Although these laws are found on the FTC’s website, the commission said it found it necessary to still go through the details with the stakeholders.

The FTC has said that these sessions are important for the business community to follow and that ignorance of these laws will not be taken as an excuse if anyone is caught breaking any law under the Fair Trading Act, which could result in sentences from R100,000 to R400,000 or even a prison sentence.

Two other sessions have been scheduled for the business community, where agreements, and then mergers will be in focus.

The FTC is appealing to members of the business community to turn up for these next events.