Mona al-Garf, head of the Antitrust Authority, said in an Interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Oriental Weavers company has been referred to prosecution on charges of monopoly.
Q: What is Oriental Weavers charged with?
A: We received a complaint in 2010 accusing the company of agreeing with a number of distributors of machine-made carpets not to distribute the products of the competitors, which investigation proved true.
Q: Why was the company told to go back on the deal, but was not informed that it was referred to prosecution?
A: Our procedure is to request a company to correct a violation within 15 days. If the violation is not corrected, we refer it to prosecution.
Q: If the complaint was filed in 2010, why did it take so long?
A: The revolution stalled our work.
Q: The company said those were the company's own certified distributors. What do you say to that?
A: There is a difference between an exclusive agent and a distributor. The law prohibits exclusive contracts with distributors because this affects fair competition.
Q: Were there similar cases before?
A: Ezz Steel was fined in 2013 for signing exclusive contracts with distributors.
Q: Why does the company object to the market share you have evaluated?
A: The information and statistics we have collected showed that the company has a dominant market share of 90 percent and not 39 percent as it claims. We will present our supporting documents to the prosecution.
Q: But the company said it had had already changed the contracts in 2012. What do you say to that?
A: The law is clear on this point. Correcting a violation does not mean we should waive it because competitors have already suffered losses.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
