Tribunal upholds CCP ruling against PSM for abuse of dominance

KARACHI: The Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) has upheld the decision of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) against Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), confirming that the state-owned enterprise abused its dominant position in the sale of low-carbon steel billets.

The CCP had imposed a penalty of Rs25 million on PSM for engaging in anti-competitive and discriminatory conduct. While recognising the violation, the tribunal partially accepted PSM’s appeal and reduced the fine to Rs5 million, citing the limited duration of the non-compliance.

The CCP initiated a suo motu inquiry in 2009 after media reports and a complaint from Frontier Foundry (Pvt) Ltd, which alleged that PSM had given preferential treatment to a particular buyer to the detriment of other market participants. The investigation found that between November 2008 and January 2009, PSM had withheld the supply of key steel products without objective justification, thereby breaching Section 3 of the Competition Ordinance, 2007. The tribunal noted that PSM had failed to inform all buyers about product availability, granting exclusive access to a single buyer and disadvantaging others. This conduct, it concluded, constituted an abuse of dominant position under Sections 3(2)(g) and 3(2)(h) of the ordinance.