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This article explores the responses of the South African competition authorities to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the socio-economic rights of consumers in relation to the price gouging of essential and medical supplies. After discussing the constitutional and legislative context of socio-economic rights and excessive pricing, it examines the first case in which the competition authorities were called upon to decide on the excessive pricing of medical supplies during COVID-19. The article finds that, while the competition authorities were swift to interpret the Competition Act widely and act against suppliers charging excessive prices, there remains a gap in South Africa's legislative framework as there is no specific legislation regulating price gouging during states of pandemic or disaster. The article identifies the need for legislative development and concludes by offering recommendations for addressing future incidents of price gouging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution transformed the Constitutional Court from a specialist in constitutional matters to a generalist appellate court. Following this amendment, the Court has demonstrated ample willingness to accept its newfound role as the super appellate court in all areas of South Africa's law, and the limits supposedly imposed on the Court's jurisdiction by Section 167(3)(b) of the Constitution have developed and evolved through a jurisprudence riddled with inconsistencies. This article briefly illustrates these inconsistencies in support of its main claim, which is that it is problematic that the Court acts as a generalist court of appeal over decisions of specialised courts, especially when those decisions require engagement with complex factual assessments that fall outside the realm of the Court's expertise. To demonstrate this, the Court's jurisprudence and experience is compared in the specialised areas of labour law and competition law. This exercise indicates that in areas where the Court possesses expertise similar to what is statutorily envisaged for the relevant specialist courts, such as labour law, it has contributed positive developments that have given content to constitutional rights. On the other hand, the Court's jurisprudence in competition law is a disturbing indication of the shortcomings of the present system in terms of which the Court, without acknowledging its limited competition expertise, has overturned expert factual and economic findings of the competition courts. In the process, this has created uncertainty and undermined the legislative intent of the Competition Act 89 of 1998. This conundrum needs to be remedied through deliberate interventions to enhance the Court's competition expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first democratic government of South Africa prioritized the transformation of society on a non-racial, democratic, and local foundation. The expectation was that all law in South Africa would contribute to, amongst other things, economic transformation and redress the imbalances created by past racial divisions, and more important foster the participation of the previously marginalized people to participate in the mainstream economy. The Competition Act is part of this fabric. In the twenty years that have passed, South Africa has become a leader in the developing world. This article provides a critical review of how competition law has pursued black empowerment with a particular focus on current challenges and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa, as with the rest of the world, faced an unexpected crisis on many levels with the onslaught of the Covid-19 virus. In addition to the human casualties, South Africa experienced a sharp rise in prices for essential goods, such as masks and sanitisers, threatening an economic crisis for South Africa's poor and unemployed. The South African Competition Commission chose to intervene using the regulatory tools available in competition law to tackle excessive pricing. This resulted in the investigation and prosecution of several companies for charging excessive prices for a range of goods and services such as masks, sanitisers and Covid-19 testing services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the principal aims of competition law is the protection of the consumer from economic exploitation. This the Nigerian government has done through the enactment of the long awaited Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 (FCCPA) which is a comprehensive legal framework governing competition issues in Nigeria. This paper seeks to critically appraise the regulation of competition under FCCPA. It compares the Nigerian competition regime with that of South Africa, a developing African country that appears to have evolved and successfully implemented a competition regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition law has been promoted across developing countries as part of a market liberalisation package which is premised on a neo-classical model of competition, privileging static allocative efficiency and largely ignoring production. This article critiques this approach through an assessment of its application in South Africa where substantial weight was given to competition law. Building on the critical assessment, the article proposes an alternative framework based on the conception of 'optimal competition' of Amsden and Singh (The optimal degree of competition and dynamic efficiency in Japan and Korea. Eur Econ Rev 38:940–951, 1994). It does this through assessing the relationship between competitive rivalry, productive investment and the development of capabilities in two key industry groupings in South Africa, metals and machinery, and plastics and chemicals. We argue that the failure to develop diversified production capabilities in South Africa reflects the entrenched incumbent firm advantages and the lack of a coordinated policy agenda which proceeds from a recognition of economic power and the need to reshape markets to alter competitive rivalry. An optimal competition framework allows analysis of dynamic rivalry and capabilities development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the consolidation of competition and consumer protection regulation through an analysis of the institutional framework established by the Nigerian Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2019. While such a consolidation is not uncommon, it still raises the question as to whether the approach is practical. The article argues that while competition and consumer protection regulation have a common purpose, they are two distinct areas of the law which require separate application and enforcement. To this end, the article discusses the pros and cons of the consolidated approach adopted by Nigeria. Comparisons are drawn with regard to South Africa, where the regulation of competition and consumer protection law remains separated as seen in the Competition Act 89 of 1998 and the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. The article finds that Nigeria's first coherent competition legislation may have been better off without this consolidated approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In article the author discusses digital markets, big data, data privacy, and competition in South Africa. Topics include the intersection between competition laws, consumer protection laws, and data protection laws; the South African Competition Commission's focus on the use of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and algorithms in the competition.

Persons who have suffered loss or damage as a result of a prohibited practice in terms of the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (the Act) have the right to recover such damage in the civil courts. This right is expressly provided for in section 65 of the Act. To date South Africa has failed to usher in an efficient and effective environment for section 65 civil damages actions, despite growing success being achieved by the competition authorities in uncovering and prosecuting firms for contraventions of the Act, including prohibited practices. Understanding how section 65 rights might be vindicated and whether South Africa's damages regime is adequate to deal with potentially complex damages actions within the realm of competition law contraventions, a starting point would be to gain certainty as to the classification of the nature of section 65 damages. This article seeks to evaluate the arguments of whether these damages actions should be properly classified as statutory or delictual actions by the South African civil courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market definition is conducted under conditions of notable uncertainty, due to conceptual ambiguity and model uncertainty. Statistical decision theory can help to explain and improve the market definition decision. Specifically, a Bayesian decision rule can assist analysts in defining markets by considering (1) the weight of evidence in favor and against substitutability (implying a ranking of substitutes), (2) prior probabilities determined by previous cases and research (setting a benchmark for inclusion in the market), and (3) error costs of incorrect inclusion or exclusion from the market. The article studies how employing such a decision rule would have improved the market definition exercise in a landmark South African merger case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on research conducted in early 2012 in the Cape Winelands municipality in South Africa. It considers the gendered dynamics of employment in two wine export value chains. In one of the chains, produce is packaged and branded in South Africa for export and in the other, bulk wine is sold for packaging and branding in Europe. The research draws on a survey of workers and in-depth interviews with managers, industry and farm worker support organisations. It considers the possible impact of the adoption of a Code of Conduct on labour standards by the Swedish alcohol retail monopoly, Systembolaget. The research reinforces findings over more than a decade that female workers are concentrated in lower paid, more fragmented and insecure employment. The findings reveal that processors are more or less compliant with national labour standards, but supplier farms are less so, especially in bulk chains. Monitoring at the individual farm level is missing. This makes it difficult to track compliance of codes down to farm level. The study queries the sustainability of initiatives to improve labour standards on farms, should costs be borne entirely by producers who are already facing a cost-price squeeze. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews an abuse of dominance decision against the incumbent do-mestic airline in South Africa (SAA) taken in 2010 and upheld on appeal in 2011. This case placed significant emphasis on the economic impact of the abusive conduct, and it represents a clear example of the adoption of an effects-based approach to assess exclusionary behavior by a dominant firm. As this article sets out, given the features of SAA's conduct and of the relevant market context, it is also possible to identify a coherent economic framework that can explain why SAA's rivals could not profitably match its incentive schemes and were therefore foreclosed. The conceptual issues raised by the SAA case are similar to the ones at stake in the landmark judgments on British Airways. The lessons from this case are therefore relevant to the ongoing antitrust debate on loyalty discounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due in part to the rights of third parties in merger litigation, there have been a number of highly contested litigated merger cases in South Africa. The article initially provides background to the mandatory premerger notification regime in South Africa, including setting out the roles of the various bodies and courts involved in the review and litigation of mergers. The article goes on to discuss the rights of third parties in merger litigation; not all third parties have the same status with regard to participating or intervening in merger proceedings. The article provides an analysis of a number of recent merger cases, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc./Massmart Holdings Ltd. and Pioneer Hi-Bred/Pannar Seed, before concluding with a brief discussion of the rights of merging parties to implement a merger pending an appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African competition regime established under the Competition Act of 1998 has been acclaimed as a success story of competition policy in an ‘emerging economy’. This paper critically reflects on the South African experience at different levels and draws lessons specifically for the expansion of competition law in Africa. It briefly assesses the record by the main areas of mergers, cartels and abuse of dominance. It then reflects particularly on two strategic areas: a) the importance of prioritisation and proactive analysis of market outcomes, including with regard to making corporate leniency work for prosecution of cartels; and, b) the framework for settlements with companies. It highlights the implications of these areas given the challenges of developing institutional capabilities in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 'effects-based' or 'economics-based' approach to competition policy requires a theory of harm that causally links a business practice and its allegedly anti-competitive effects and also weighs anti competitive effects against the pro-competitive effects of the practice. This implies a shift away from per se prohibitions of certain practices towards case-by-case analysis - a move that has been hotly debated, especially in Europe. Using a case study of the recently concluded British American Tobacco case, we study the core features of an effects-based approach to vertical restraints. We find the approach followed in the British American Tobacco South Africa case generally consistent with an effects-based analysis, but highlight some limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that while policing has always been plural, states have for several centuries sought to realize an ideal of a state monopoly over the governance of security. These aspirations have their roots in the political thought of Hobbesc who wrote at the time of the Westphalian Peace of 1648. The ideals of this tradition were expressed by Weber's conception of the nation state as requiring a monopoly of violence. Within this political philosophy, aspiration led to claims that such a monopoly had been realized; that a political fiction was the case. Over the past several decades this fiction has been increasingly difficult to maintain even though the Westphalian aspiration remains very much alive and well. It is now widely recognized, albeit as researchers have just suggested with a deep sense of loss that the Wesphalian project has not been realized, that the governance of security and governance more generally has been, at least for the moment, thoroughly pluralised. While there has been talk that these developments have "hollowed out the state" by taking work away from state bureaucracies, this has certainly not always been the case. Indeed the trend seems to have been an add-on process rather than one of replacement.

The paper first illustrates the contradictory results generated by two surveys - conducted respectively by the colonial Government in 1996 and the author/principal investigator in 1998. The author then argues that the requirement that applicants must be married couples is not well-supported and should be replaced by the criterion of `functional parenthood'. The author also argues in the paper that such a relaxation would also destablize the mythological dichotomy of 'homo vs. Chines&, which is predicated on (1) the misunderstanding that Tongzhi/Queer could not have any child(ren) and (2) the Han-Chinese traditional emphasis on reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antitrust authorities in South Africa, the US, the Russian Federation and Germany have approved the mandatory offer that Renova submitted to Sulzer AG shareholders in August 2015 (see Pump Industry Analyst , August 2015). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on two books related to economics published in South Africa. The book "Education and the South African Economy: The 1961 Education Panel 2nd Report," deal with the economics of education. Predictions of the future demand for educated man-power are made, and the measures required to meet the demand are discussed in considerable detail. It takes for granted the racial structure of South African education, but emphasizes the need for considerable improvements in African Education, both at the primary and higher levels, and lends no support to the view that high-level jobs should remain a White preserve. The book "Elements of Price Theory," by F. van den Bogaerde includes a competent treatment of imperfect competition, monopoly, monopsony, monopolistic competition and the rest.