Tribunal Upholds CCP Verdict Against Pakistan Steel Mills for Anti-Competitive Practices

The Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) has upheld the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) decision against Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), affirming its ruling that the state-owned enterprise had abused its dominant position in the sale of low-carbon steel billets. The CCP had imposed a penalty of Rs. 25 million for PSM’s anti-competitive and discriminatory conduct. While acknowledging the violation, the Tribunal partially allowed PSM’s appeal and reduced the penalty to Rs. 5 million, citing the limited duration of non-compliance. The CCP took suo motu notice in 2009 following media reports and a complaint by M/s Frontier Foundry (Pvt.) Ltd., which alleged preferential treatment by PSM towards a particular buyer, Abbas Group, at the expense of other market participants. CCP’s investigation revealed that PSM withheld the supply of key steel products between November 2008 and January 2009 without any objective justification, thereby violating Section 3 of the Competition Ordinance, 2007. The Tribunal observed that PSM failed to inform all buyers of product availability, enabling exclusive access for a single group and causing harm to other market players. Such conduct, the Tribunal noted, constituted abuse of dominance under Section 3(2)(g) and (h) of the Ordinance.