The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) has issued a proposed decision against seven tuition and day-care centres for wrongfully agreeing to fix and standardise the fees charged for tuition and day-care services in the SS19 area of Subang Jaya, Selangor.

The agreement to collectively fix the fees was entered into in May 2017 and a notice to that effect was issued by the said parties.

By doing so, they have infringed Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 (CA2010).

After taking into account the fact and circumstances of the case, as well as the relevant provisions of the Act and the commission’s Guidelines on Financial Penalty, it proposed to impose a penalty on all seven tuition and day-care centres a collective sum of RM33,068.85 for the duration of the infringement but not more than 10 per cent of their worldwide turnover.

The provisional decision also requires the said parties to immediately “cease and desist” from the act of price fixing and to repudiate the price fixing agreement with immediate effect, and will be required to enrol and complete the commission’s e-Learning course on Competition Compliance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within one month from issuance of the proposed decision.

Pursuant to Section 36 of the Act, the commission had provided detailed reasoning for arriving at its proposed decision so as to provide all seven tuition and day-care centres with a fair opportunity to respond accordingly.

MyCC’s chief executive officer, Datuk Abu Samah Shabudin said price fixing was considered to be a very serious infringement under the CA 2010, therefore, the commission would not hesitate to take swift and stern action against all enterprises, whether big or small, found to be engaged in such anti-competitive practice.

“This shall serve as a clear message and deterrent to others from following suit,” he added.

--BERNAMA