High Court of Singapore rules on first competition case

30/06/26

The High Court of Singapore has today delivered judgment on the proper approach to infringements "by object" of competition law.

The case concerned price fixing of warehouse services at Keppel Distripark, a major cargo distribution area in Singapore.  The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) decided that four warehouse operators had exchanged commercially sensitive pricing information when introducing a free trade zone surcharge. In the CCS' view, this constituted a concerted practice that had the object of restricting competition. On appeal, the specialist Competition Appeal Board (CAB) overturned the CCS’ decision on the basis that the conduct in question was not so obviously injurious to competition and that the CCS had not examined the economic context in sufficient detail.

The CCS successfully appealed to the High Court. The High Court considered a number of Court of Justice decisions, including Cartes Bancaries and Banco BPN, and concluded that the CAB had been wrong to find that the exchange of information on competitors' pricing strategies and intentions did not constitute a restriction of competition by object.  The High Court also held that the CAB had erred in finding that the CCS had not adequately considered the economic context. It also rejected the companies' arguments about lack of market power militating against finding an object restriction: far from being casual conversations that had no competitive impact, the companies had exchanged price-related information in a price-sensitive market to reduce the risks of competition.

The judgment can be found here.