JOHANNESBURG – Shoprite's retail unit said on Thursday that it would oppose the competition commission's decision to charge it for anti-competitive behaviour.
The Competition Commission recommended to the country’s Competition Tribunal that Shoprite Checkers be fined 10 percent of its turnover for the behaviour.
Computicket, its event ticket selling subsidiary, was also charged and fined the same amount as its retail unit.
In a statement, the commission said Shoprite and the event ticket seller had signed exclusive agreements that gave Computicket the ability to discriminate between large and small customers on prices and forced third parties to engage with Computicket, excluding its competitors.
“The Commission has asked the Tribunal to impose an administrative penalty of 10 percent of Computicket and Shoprite Checkers annual turnover,” the commission said.
Shares in the country’s biggest supermarket chain fell more than 4 percent after the announcement but had recovered to R183, a decline of 1.84 percent, by 12:37pm.
In October, earlier this year, Shoprite’s share price fell 4.6 percent after it released a flat operational update for the quarter to end September hampered by weak consumer sentiment.