Tribunal Awards Costs

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.