Price fixing

The penalty, which brings to an end an exhaustive two-year probe into the price-fixing of medical tariffs, sets a precedent in the private health care industry. It should also concern the property and legal professions which are also being probed for alleged price fixing.

The anti-competitive behaviour for which the association is guilty includes the fixing of private doctors' tariffs, hospital fees and medical aid levies. The commission argued that the body, being an association of organisations, fixed, recommended and published a tariff to its members. Which recommendation was the equivalent of fixing a selling price.

Almost echoing the Pretoria Association of Attorneys Fees issue last year, the association countered that the tariffs had not been enforced over the years, and were intended as a recommendation only to its members.

Full article in BusinessDay