The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has said its decision to impose fine of $110m on British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) is aimed at ensuring that the company is divested of the proceeds of the malfeasance it was found guilty of, in tune with global practice.
Giving the explanation in a Television Interview, granted recently, the Executive Vice President of the agency, Mr. BabatundeIrukera, added that the fine is in tune with sanctions usually imposed on companies found guilty of anti-competition offences globally.
He stated that investigations conducted by the agency on the tobacco manufacturing company revealed that the company and its associates engaged in some anti-competition conduct and violated some prevailing public health measures.
Irukera added that the investigation, which commenced in 2020, and saw over 21 employees and collaborators of the company interrogated, by the agency, also showed that the company, as a dominant player in that market, used such dominance to distort the ecosystem.
“When you are a dominant player, there are rules about your conduct. You shouldn’t act unilaterally in a way that distorts the market, or potentially excludes competitors from having the opportunity to thrive in a market.
“Some of the things we found is that this company had abused its dominant position, including using its reach and muscle to try and prevent the entry of products of competitors. They are also training trade reps on how to engage their retailers to promote their products over other competitors’ products.
“We also discovered commercially- sensitive information of competitors in their records. Those are information you can not get from public sources, which shows that you are monitoring competitors in a manner that is not consistent with the law,” he stated.
The FCCPC boss stated that the fine was arrived at, by the agency, after the company had entered into cooperation and assistance framework, and expressed its desire to resolve the issues, short of prosecution.
Irukera added that contrary to claims in some quarters that FCCPC was arbitrary in its imposition of the fine, the agency only acted within the confines of the law.
Globally, he stated, anti-competitive procedures usually attract huge penalties; since anti-competition distorts the market and affects the nation’s economy.
“An anti-competitive conduct takes some level of technicalities and intensity and protracted painstaking investigation to unravel. So, whenever we find this, the target of investigation, or the perpetrators of the malfeasance are usually subjected to real serious fine. The reason is that it is important to divest perpetrators of such malfeasance of whatever they must have gained from such act.
“Also, it is important to let others who are watching take a cue from what has happened, and say ‘I’m not going to engage in this because this is what will happen to me’.
“It is important so that others who are planning to come into the market will know there is serious, strong consequence management mechanism that will protect them if they come in there.
“So the fine is not arbitrary. It’s the law, it’s not limited to Nigeria, it is what obtains globally,” the FCCPC boss noted.
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