Malayan Flour Mills Bhd and its joint venture (JV) company, Dindings Poultry Development Centre Sdn Bhd, are getting legal advise as they seek to challenge the Malaysia Competition Commission’s (MyCC) recent decision to impose a penalty of RM70.02 million (US$14.84 million) for a price-fixing infringement.
Both parties mentioned that MyCC’s infringement claim is without merit and they will take the necessary action to appeal the decision and apply for a stay of the decision in the interim.
Earlier in December 2023, MyCC had imposed a combined penalty of nearly RM415.5 million (US$88.1 million) against 5 poultry feed manufacturers for infringing Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010 (Act 712) by forming a price-fixing cartel for poultry feed. The companies affected include Leong Hup Feedmill (M) Sdn Bhd, FFM Bhd, Gold Coin Feedmills (M) Sdn Bhd, Dindings Poultry Development Centre Sdn Bhd and PK Agro-Industrial Products (M) Sdn Bhd.
The commission, in a statement, revealed that it has uncovered evidence of identical increments in poultry feed prices among the parties from January 2020 to June 2022, in addition to the findings that the 5 enterprises had employed a calculated strategy to create the illusion of rising poultry feed costs due to hikes in raw material costs.
