Omnia to pay R30 million fine for collusion

Following an almost 15 year legal battle between Omnia Fertilizer and South Africa’s Competition Commission (CompCom), the fertiliser company has agreed to pay a R30 million “administrative penalty” for engaging in anti-competitive practices.

Omnia to pay R30 million fine for collusion
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Following an almost 15 year legal battle between Omnia Fertilizer and South Africa’s Competition Commission (CompCom), the fertiliser company has agreed to pay a R30 million “administrative penalty” for engaging in anti-competitive practices.

A CompCom statement explained that in November 2003 two affiliated fertiliser companies, Nutri-Flo and Nutri-Fertilizer, lodged a complaint alleging that Omnia Fertilizer’s subsidiary, Nitrochem, had been colluding with Sasol Chemical Industries and Kynoch Fertilizer (subsequently re-named Yara South Africa) to illegally fix prices and allocate markets.

The CompCom’s statement added that while Sasol Chemical Industries acknowledged its transgressions in these activities and had paid a R251 million penalty, and Yara South Africa had since been liquidated, Omnia Fertilizer had undertaken “protracted litigation” to challenge the CompCom’s findings.

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Omnia Fertilizer’s parent company, Omnia Holdings, said in a statement that “the Omnia Board welcomes the resolution of this matter”.

“Omnia will continue with its comprehensive competition law compliance programme to ensure that the group promotes and maintains competition in the market and implements a culture of good corporate governance in this respect,” the statement added.

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Lloyd Phillips joined Farmer’s Weekly in January 2003 and is now a Senior Journalist with the publication. He spent most of his childhood on a Zululand sugarcane farm where he learned to speak fluent Zulu. After matriculating in 1993, Lloyd dreamed of working as a nature conservationist. Life’s vagaries, however, had different plans for him and Lloyd ended up sampling various jobs in South African agriculture before becoming a proud member of the Farmer’s Weekly team.