Article by
Lee Mendelsohn 
,
Derushka Chetty 
and Sarah Pearson (Candidate
Attorney)
South Africa's Constitutional Court (the
"ConCourt") has handed down its judgments in both the (i)
Yara South Africa (Proprietary) Limited ("Yara") and
Omnia Fertilizer Limited ("Omnia") case (the
"Yara/Omnia case") and (ii) the Loungefoam (Proprietary)
Limited ("Loungefoam") and Vitafoam (Proprietary) Limited
("Vitafoam") case (the "Loungefoam case"). The
judgments, which were handed down yesterday, effectively deny the
Competition Commission (the "Commission") leave to appeal
the decisions of the Competition Appeal Court (the "CAC")
in these matters directly to the ConCourt.
In an attempt to seek clarity on the scope and proper exercise
of its statutory powers of complaint initiation, investigation and
referral, the Commission sought to overturn the CAC's decisions
in each of the Yara/Omnia case and the Loungefoam case. In
these cases, the CAC has ruled that the Commission
