Prominent dealership groups and importers have been added to the lengthening list of those summoned by the competition commission to give evidence on alleged price-fixing in the new vehicle market.
Prominent dealership groups and importers have been added to the lengthening list of those summoned by the competition commission to give evidence on alleged price-fixing in the new vehicle market.
This follows after it was confirmed on Wednesday that DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Volkswagen had been subpoenaed to testify before the commission.
Zodwa Ntuli, a commission official, this week said that more manufacturers and dealers had been summoned to provide further information as part of its investigation.
Importers Citröen, Hyundai and Subaru and dealer groups McCarthy Motor Holdings, Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), Associated Motor Holdings (AMH) and Barloworld have all since been taken to task by the competition commission for alleged uncompetitive practices.
Martin Loubser, managing director of Barloworld Motor, on Friday told that the commission had approached Subaru South Africa executives for give evidence. People representing different vehicle brands at three of the group’s dealerships had also been approached to testify.
Chief executive of AMH, Manny de Canha, confirmed that a few people at Hyundai and Citroën had been subpoenaed and given evidence “about a month or two ago.”
CMH’s chief executive Jebb McIntosh said people from three of its franchisees had given evidence about a month ago.
The interrogation of dealer council executives was related to collusion between dealers of the same group, rather than between dealers and manufacturers. The commission has indicated that this would be investigated as well.