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Johannesburg - The Competition Commission and Pioneer Food Group [JSE:PFG] will on Wednesday ask the Competition Tribunal to confirm the settlement they reached earlier this month.
The November 2 agreement aims to settle eight separate investigations the commission had undertaken involving alleged contraventions of the Competition Act.
Although other firms are alleged to have been involved in some of the activities, the present settlement is only with Pioneer.
In respect of some of these investigations, Pioneer was granted conditional leniency.
The investigations involved the maize and wheat milling industries, baking, poultry and eggs.
Conduct ranged from collusion, unlawful information sharing and predatory pricing.
As part of the settlement Pioneer agreed, among other things, to pay R250m to the National Revenue Fund as an administrative penalty and to pay R250m to create an Agro-processing Competitiveness Fund which aims to promote competitiveness, employment and growth in food value chains, and to adjust its pricing of flour and bread to reduce its gross margin.
The total settlement will be payable over a two-year period.
Settlement agreements require the approval of the tribunal to be enforced.
