Today, the Competition Commission (the Commission) is conducting a search and seizure (dawn raid) operation at the offices of Precision and Sons (Precision), Eldan Auto Body (Eldan) in Pretoria West, and Vehicle Accident Assessment Centre (VAAC) in Centurion.
The dawn raid operation forms part of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into collusive conduct in the market for auto body repairs.
The two firms are approved auto body repairers to Original Equipment Manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz, Toyota and Jeep. VAAC is an assessment centre which renders vehicle assessment services to customers of both Precision and Eldan. The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that information relevant to this investigation is in the premises of the two companies.
The Commission is conducting the operation with due regard to the rights of the firms and all the affected persons. During the search the Commission will seize documents and electronic data, which will be analysed together with other information gathered to determine whether a contravention of the Competition Act has taken place.
In terms of section 48 of the Competition Act, the Commission is authorised to enter and search premises and seize documents which have a bearing on an investigation. The Commission duly obtained warrants authorizing it to search the offices of Precision, Eldan and VAAC at the North Gauteng High Court.
The dawn raid operation forms part of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into collusive conduct in the market for auto body repairs.
The two firms are approved auto body repairers to Original Equipment Manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz, Toyota and Jeep. VAAC is an assessment centre which renders vehicle assessment services to customers of both Precision and Eldan. The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that information relevant to this investigation is in the premises of the two companies.
The Commission is conducting the operation with due regard to the rights of the firms and all the affected persons. During the search the Commission will seize documents and electronic data, which will be analysed together with other information gathered to determine whether a contravention of the Competition Act has taken place.
In terms of section 48 of the Competition Act, the Commission is authorised to enter and search premises and seize documents which have a bearing on an investigation. The Commission duly obtained warrants authorizing it to search the offices of Precision, Eldan and VAAC at the North Gauteng High Court.