Vexall Proprietary Limited v Business Connexion Proprietary Limited and Another (IR119Oct19) [2020] ZACT 85 (12 February 2020)

60 Reportability
Competition Law

Brief Summary

Competition — Abuse of dominance — Prohibition on conditional sales — Vexall Proprietary Limited lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission against Business Connexion Proprietary Limited regarding the sale of Unisolv licenses conditioned on the purchase of value-added services. The Competition Tribunal found that such practices constituted an abuse of dominance and issued an order prohibiting BCX from selling Unisolv licenses on such conditions for a period of six months. The Tribunal also ordered BCX to pay the applicant's costs.

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[2020] ZACT 85
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Vexall Proprietary Limited v Business Connexion Proprietary Limited and Another (IR119Oct19) [2020] ZACT 85 (12 February 2020)

COMPETITION
TRIBUNAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
Case
No: IR119Oct19
In
the matter between:
VEXALL
PROPRIETARY
LIMITED                                          Applicant
And
BUSINESS
CONNEXION PROPRIETARY LIMITED               First

Respondent
THE
COMPETITION COMMISSION                                        Second

Respondent
Panel:
Yasmin Carrim (Presiding Member), Anton Roskam (Tribunal
Member),Halton Cheadle (Tribunal Member)
Heard
on: 3 February 2020
Order
issued on: 12 February 2020
ORDER
KINDLY
TAKE NOTICE THAT having heard the parties, the Competition Tribunal
issues the following order in terms of
section 49C
of the
Competition
Act 89 of 1998
, as amended ("the Act") in the following
terms:
1.
For the purposes of this order the following terms mean-
a. 'BCX' means the First
Respondent;
b. 'complaint' means the
complaint referred to the Competition Commission by the Applicant on
16 October 2019;
c. 'customer' means a
customer of the Unisolv licence supplied by BCX;
d. 'Unisolv licence'
means the use of the Unisolv software and any upgrades, bug fixes,
repairs or additional coding to the software;
e. 'software support
services' means those support services related to the upgrading and
repairing of the Unisolv software provided
by BCX;
f.  'value added
services' includes BCX's Data Bureau Service, its Electronic
Remittance Services and support services other
than software support
services.
2.
From the date of this order BCX is prohibited from selling or
offering a Unisolv license on condition that a customer
purchases
value-added services from BCX.
3.
The order in paragraph 2 remains in force for 6 months from date of
this order or the conclusion of a hearing into
the complaint,
whichever is the earlier.
4.
BCX to pay Applicant's costs of the application.
Ms
Yasmin Carrim
Mr
Anton Roskam and Prof. Halton Cheadle concurring.
Date:
12 February 2020