Cartel activity is a form of practice prohibited by the Competition Act. Cartel activities involves, but is not limited to the direct or indirect fixing of purchase or selling prices, the dividing of markets by allocating customers or suppliers and / or collusive tendering and other activities by a group of persons or trade organisations that promotes their self-interest. It is difficult for the competition authorities to detect cartel activities due to its intrinsic secret nature which renders both its detection and investigation difficult.
For this reason, competition authorities adopted a corporate leniency policy (the ''CLP''). The CLP offers the first self-confessing cartel member who approaches the competition authority, immunity from prosecution and fines for his / her / its participation in cartel activities. The aim of the CLP is to encourage cartel members to disclose cartel activity and thus to contribute toward achieving the objects of the Competition Act.
However, such immunity may be revoked should a self-confessing cartel member not continue to collaborate with the competition authorities after his / her / its confession and during the investigations in order to uproot any cartel activities.