Fair competition occurs where all the market players have a level playing field. Restrictive practices that distort the market are banned.
False and misleading advertisements about price and quality are against the competition law.
In the event that you have a complaint to make on unfair or restrictive trade practices, then you can lodge a complaint to the Competition Authority.
In 2010, the Competition Act was passed to promote fairness in the market and furthermore to protect the consumer. Ever since there have been a lot of filings by businesses aggrieved by others through unfair trade practices and restrictive trade practices.
The filings and the decisions made by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) provide an alternative means through which businesses can resolve disputes pertaining to unfair competition.
The Competition Tribunal, established under the Act, has heard several appeals from the CAK and contributed to the jurisprudence on competition law in Kenya.
Fair competition occurs where all the market players have a level playing field. Restrictive practices that distort the market are banned.
An example is where suppliers collude to hoard a specific product in the hope that they will artificially manipulate the market and cause an increase in prices.
The price in this case is not determined by the laws of supply and demand but is artificially and unfairly manipulated against the consumer.
The competition law also bans unfair trade practices, especially those that may harm a consumer or a competitor. Therefore, actions such as spreading falsehoods against a competitor are unfair trade practices. False and misleading advertisements about price and quality are also against the competition law.
The Competition Act sets out the mandate of the Competition Authority and further specifies incidences that contravene the law.
In the event that you have a complaint to make about unfair or restrictive trade practices, then you can lodge a complaint to the Competition Authority.
The Authority has the power to investigate the incidence and make decisions. For example, it may require the offender to take certain actions to remedy the situation or ask the offender to desist from doing certain actions.
For example, if there is evidence that suppliers in a certain sector are hoarding goods or services with the hope of artificially manipulating the market, then an aggrieved party can file a complaint at the Authority.
In one case, a complaint was made against a leading hypermarket in Kenya by a supplier where the hypermarket was accused of abusing its buying power contrary to the provisions of the Act.
The facts of the case were that the hypermarket unilaterally delisted the supplier, a beverages supplier without notice. As a result, the supplier was left with excessive stock.
Other facts of the dispute were that the hypermarket refused to accept delivery of the goods claiming that the expiration date was nearby.
The commercial risk was on the supplier. There were many other allegations surrounding the supplier contract and the alleged abuse of power.
The Authority found for the supplier and made a decision which was appealed by the hypermarket.
The Competition Tribunal ordered the hypermarket to amend supply agreements to expunge offending provisions that would amount to abuse of buying power.
This decision demonstrates the power of the Tribunal in commercial disputes touching on unfair competition and restrictive trade practices.
There has been a lot of case law reported from the Competition Tribunal which attests that more commercial disputes are being handled by the Tribunal.
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