The Competition Act affects every business operating in South Africa, and the serious consequences of contravention necessitate a sound understanding of its basic principles and access to the best possible legal advice. Our Competition practice area is at the forefront of developments in competition law in South Africa. 

In many respects, the principles of South Africa’s competition law are broadly similar to those of other major jurisdictions such as Canada, the European Union and the United States. An overarching law, the Competition Act, prohibits anti-competitive behaviour such as price-fixing and collusion between competitors, and the abuse of dominance. The Act also provides for a merger control regime in terms of which the prior approval of the competition authorities must be obtained for certain mergers and acquisitions.

South African competition law differs from foreign models in that the focus is not purely on competition issues, but also on certain public interest and social goals – such as the promotion of small businesses, the interests of employees and black economic empowerment.

These additional requirements heighten the complexity of the competition law framework and highlight the value of legal advice that blends business and economic insight with legal expertise. The strength of our experienced Competition team is based on a complementary blend of legal and business skills and a focus on finding practical solutions on clients’ behalf.

Our team members have assisted a number of large corporates including mining, manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services companies and foreign multinationals – with the competition law aspects of mergers and acquisitions. We also regularly advise on prohibited practices such as cartel conduct, bid rigging and abuses of dominance. We have recently acted in cartel proceedings in the following industries: steel, airline, construction, engineering, motor vehicle manufacturing, fuel, plastic pipes and milk.

Services include dealing with:

• Merger control compliance advice
• Preparing and submitting merger approval applications to the Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal
• Due diligence investigations and compliance audits
• Exemption applications
• Market investigations
• Cartel investigations and settlements
• Assistance during dawn raids
• General advice on compliance with local and international competition laws and developing compliance programmes
• Criminal, disciplinary and forensic investigations relating to cartels
• Instituting and defending complaints relating to anti-competitive conduct including appearances before the Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal in interim relief, intervention and defence proceedings
• Competition law training courses
• Appeals and reviews to the Competition Appeal Court
  
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