Tribunal awards costs against party withdrawing complaint referral
On 21 November 2012 the Competition Tribunal awarded costs
against the Protea Group in respect of a complaint initiated, and
interim relief application launched, by Protea against the Invensys
Group.
Protea is a former distributor of the Invensys Group's
products in South Africa. Protea alleged that the manner in which
Invensys terminated its distribution arrangement amounted to an
abuse of dominance and was, as result, in contravention of the
Competition Act.
Protea filed a direct referral of the matter to the Tribunal and
applied for interim relief after the Competition Commission issued
a notice of non-referral. Following an exception filed by Invensys,
Protea withdrew their direct referral and interim relief
applications, but did not tender to pay for the costs of the
aborted applications. Invensys responded by bringing an application
for costs.
The Tribunal decided that, despite the stated intention of Protea
to reinstate their referral, a decision to directly refer had
commenced and terminated when it was instituted before and
subsequently withdrawn from the Tribunal. Invensys was therefore
entitled to be awarded costs for both the direct referral and the
interim relief application, as these actions were inseparable. The
Tribunal awarded costs on a party and party scale.
Source
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