A year on, competition watchdog still has to grow teeth
More than a year after a landmark court judgment that stopped the competition watchdog from imposing fines, the government would not say when the situation would change.
The uncertainty still prevails despite the concerns raised by the Consumer Association, which had publicly urged the government to take action to solve this “unacceptable” situation.
In a ruling in May last year, a court of appeal confirmed that certain provisions of the Competition Act were unconstitutional. The case in question had been instituted by the Federation of Real Estate Agents in response to a €1.2 million fine imposed on it by the competition tribunal.
The court decided that the director general for competition could not decide cases over alleged breach of rules and impose fines because only a proper court could guarantee a fair hearing.
Consequently, the competition watchdog refrained from imposing any fines, even in cases when it had concluded that there had been a breach. A case in point happened last October when it was concluded that a fuel supplier and a petrol station owner had colluded to fix the cost of diesel at the pump. Yet, the watchdog could not impose any administrative fines.
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