The Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) has reprimanded Nestle Pakistan Limited for its irresponsible response to the Authority in the monopoly power case.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the chairman MCA Khalid A Mirza after holding hearings on December 4 and 5 in its camp office, Lahore, disposed of nine cases of non-compliance to MCA's directives levying fine of more than 0.7 million on five textile mills and three pharmaceuticals companies.
Regarding Nestle's case, the Authority noted that the advocates of the High Court Zeeshan Ashraf Mir and Mashood Hussain Chaudhry representing the Company have behaved irresponsibly. They are liable to misstatements, factual inaccuracies, and unsupported assertions apart from a few instances of objectionable language in Nestle's response to the Authority's Show Cause Notice.
The Authority noticed Nestle Pakistan for aggrandising to itself "unreasonable monopoly power and lessening competition in the bottled water market through, inter alia, the acquisition of three competitors and eliminating the 'AVA' brand from Lahore".
Counsels representing Nestle were unable to come up with any explanation or defence with regard to these charges. They sought instructions from the company's senior management and perhaps withdraw the reply, the Authority noticed.
Chairman, MCA expressed his surprise that a company of the eminence and stature of Nestle could have made such an "egregious" submission to a public agency. It was also noted that counsels for the company were not fully briefed. The case will now be heard in Islamabad on December 12.
Regarding other cases the press release said six cases pertained to textile units that defaulted in the supply of information required by the Authority under law and three cases of the pharmaceutical companies, which did not register their distribution agreements.
The Authority has imposed penalties to the undertakings, which included M/s Haral Textiles Ltd (Rs 100,000), M/s Service Industries Textiles Ltd (Rs 100,000), M/s Irfan Textiles Ltd (Rs 25,000), M/s Maqbool Textile Mills Ltd (Rs 100,000), M/s Farooq Habib Textile Mils Ltd (Rs 100,000), M/s Don Valley Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Limited (Rs 100,000), M/s Remington Pharmaceuticals Industries (Pvt) Limited (Rs 100,000), and M/s Siza International (Pvt) Limited (Rs 100,000).
Case against Resham Textile was vacated because they supplied the requisite information prior to the date of hearing, the Authority said.
The eight undertakings are also required to comply with the Orders of MCA failing which they shall be liable to action under sub-section (2) of Section 19 of MRTPO 1970 for imposition of further penalty of Rs 10,000 per day, said the Authority.
The sources at the Authority told that Sugar Mills' cases, which did not comply with the Authority have proceeded for litigation. According to MCA, all Mills of Punjab, which were defaulters have gone in litigation. There are two of the four mills from Sindh, which have adopted the same course.