Competition Council Opens Investigation into Potential Anti-Competitive Practices in Sardine Supply Market

Rabat – Morocco’s Competition Council announced today, Thursday, the launch of an investigation into the potential existence of anti-competitive practices within the industrial sardine supply market.

In a press release, the Council stated that “in the exercise of its functions and powers stipulated in the Constitution, Law No. 20.13 relating to the Competition Council, and Law No. 104.12 relating to the freedom of prices and competition, as amended and supplemented, and aimed at regulating competition in the markets and protecting consumer interests, the Competition Council has taken the initiative and opened an investigation into the potential existence of anti-competitive practices in the industrial sardine supply market.”

Following the elements and conclusions reached by the Council’s investigation services, the same source added that the latter concluded that there is evidence and indications suggesting the existence of practices in the form of anti-competitive agreements between a number of players active in the industrial sardine supply market.

The Council explained that these suspected anti-competitive agreements, which aimed to restrict competition in the industrial sardine supply market for a period of 20 years, consisted of “agreements on setting the initial selling prices of industrial sardines, which prevented prices from being formed through the free market mechanism and contributed to artificially raising or lowering them,” and “agreements on the coordinated distribution and restriction of production, which limits market access and prevents free competition from other operators.”

In accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of the aforementioned Law No. 104.12, the General Rapporteur of the Competition Council notified preliminary findings in this regard to 15 professional bodies concerned by the aforementioned anti-competitive practices. These bodies represent categories of ship owners, industrial units active in the processing and valorization of industrial fish, as well as wholesale fish traders active in purchasing seafood at the initial sale for the purpose of marketing it.

The notification of these preliminary findings to the parties concerned marks the starting point of the adversarial procedure, which ensures these parties the exercise of their guaranteed rights of defense.

The press release emphasized that “the notification of findings by the investigation and research services does not prejudice the final decision that the Council will take in this case, for which it remains the exclusive competent deliberative body to rule on the file, after following the aforementioned adversarial procedure, in full respect of the rights of defense granted to the parties concerned, and after holding a hearing to discuss the case and deliberate on it.”