Telkom has been accused by many companies and institutions of anti-competitive practices, but a recent High Court ruling means that the Competition Commission may not be able to address these cases.<\/p>\n
In June the Pretoria High Court ruled that the Competition Commission (CC) may not refer a complaint against Telkom to the Competition Tribunal. This left the CC with its hands tied after recommending a R 3.7billion fine against Telkom.<\/p>\n
If the court ruling holds it means that Telkom is likely to escape punishment for potential anti-competitive practices. The Competition Commission is however looking to appeal the ruling preventing it from referring the Telkom dispute to the Competition Tribunal. <\/p>\n
Leave to appeal the Telkom-Competition Commission High Court ruling by the Commission and leave for Telkom to cross-appeal the matter has now been granted and will be heard today by the Supreme Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
“The judge ruled that the referral by the commission to the tribunal, of the complaint by Sava against Telkom, be reviewed as the commission had adopted a view demonstrating bias against Telkom,” the commission said previously.<\/p>\n
“We refute this, as we did in court. The commission reviews copious materials in its investigations to draw its own conclusions, as was the case in this matter. We remain unmoved by the suggestion that by sharing some of the views of the research centre consulting to us necessarily constituted bias.”<\/p>\n