KLANG: The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) has fined seven warehouse operators for their involvement in a price-fixing cartel in relation to handling services of import and export cargo at Port Klang.

       The seven companies were slapped with fines ranging between RM26,363.03 and RM336,369.13, which collectively amounted to RM1,043,012.52.

       In a statement yesterday, MyCC said the penalty did not exceed 10% of the respective companies’ global turnover.

       “In the process of determining the penalty, MyCC has considered the impact of the current economic situation together with the presence of mitigation and aggravating factors in the case,’’ it said.

       The statement noted that investigations, conducted between May 2017 and December 2019, revealed that the operators had formed a cartel and conspired to fix the surcharges for the handling service of long length and heavy lift cargoes amongst themselves.

       The operators, who were all competitors, had apparently signed a memorandum agreeing to collectively charge a rate agreed upon by all of them beginning June 1, 2017.

       “In any rate, the cartel is the supreme evil of competition law. All competition agencies in the world have the same view, including MyCC.

       “As such, MyCC has always given high priority to the investigation and punishment of anti-competitive agreements, especially price and quota cartels, customer or territorial allocation agreements and bid rigging too,” said MyCC chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail.

       He said the outcome of the case should be a clear message to industry players that MyCC will not tolerate such conduct which is an act of sabotage of an open market economy.