The Shipping Association of Guyana (SAG) has been found guilty of “price fixing” by the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC) and five of its members have been ordered to pay $3.8 million each.
In a press statement yesterday the CCAC explain-ed that its commissioners “unanimously” found that the SAG was engaging in anti-competitive behaviour by agreeing to collude to fix rates for the haulage of containers from terminals operated by its membership, with the intention of disrupting the natural market flow to the advantage of the SAG.
The complaint brought by Mahindranauth Jaikarran of JD Transport Services in 2017 argued that the terminal operators imposed handling fees for the private haulers which are not charged by the SAG members which gives them “a price advantage vis a vis the private hauler, to the extent of the handling fees”.