Fourteen local cement companies in Saudi Arabia have been fined a total of $37.3 million by the General Authority for Competition (GAC), the country’s antitrust body, for engaging in price manipulation.
The General Authority for Competition has imposed a $2.7 million fine on each of the producers for manipulating the cement prices to benefit themselves, infringing Article 4 of the Competition Law, reported Arab News.
The law prohibits practices, agreements, or contracts among competing firms that lead to controlling the prices of goods and services intended for sale by increasing or decreasing them to harm the market, it stated.
The 14 manufacturers, who control most of the Saudi cement market, were accused of reaching an illegal agreement among themselves to raise cement prices and share the local markets, said media reports.
These include big names such as Southern Cement, Arabian Cement, Saudi Cement, Yanbu, and Hail as well as other local groups Najran, United Cement, Al-Yamama, Al-Riyadh, Al-Safwa, Al-Madinah, Umm Al-Qura, Al-Jouf, Al-Qassim.
GAC said it received complaints that several companies in the cement sector had manipulated the prices to benefit themselves.
Following this, its board gave approval to an investigation into these claims and found that these companies violated the Competition Law by raising cement prices.
After conducting a thorough investigation into complaints filed by consumers, the GAC concluded that 14 cement firms were involved in illegal practices to “manipulate the market and increase cement prices”.
The decision to take punitive measures was published in the local media at the expense of the violating companies, it stated.
The authority said in a statement that the decision to penalise them became final after the issuance of rulings by the Administrative Court of Appeal in Riyadh, rejecting the lawsuits filed by the companies challenging the decision to penalise them.
