Competition watchdog wants to take Maxes, Riso to court

The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) has made a final decision to institute court proceedings against office automation equipment suppliers, Maxes Office Machines (Pty) Ltd (Maxes) and South African-based Riso Africa (Pty) Ltd (Riso Africa), for alleged exclusive dealings after its investigation revealed that the companies have contravened the Namibian Competition Act.The NaCC issued a statement, saying as part of its business activities, Maxes purchases office automation equipment from its suppliers, distributes and sells them to end-users, and thereafter renders after-sale services and support to its clients. The office automation equipment supplied by Maxes includes high-volume digital printing machines and duplicating machines.Riso Africa, on the other hand, is Africa’s representative of Riso Kagaku Japan, which manufactures and supplies two types of office printing equipment namely, the Riso Digital Duplicators and Riso ComColour Inkjet Printers.The NaCC’s investigation was concerned with the distribution of digital duplicators which are used for mass printing, used in schools, government offices such as the directorate of education and other public and private institutions that require mass printing.According to the NaCC, the companies entered into an exclusive distributorship agreement which has been in existence since 1996. The exclusive distributorship agreement designated Maxes as the sole distributor, service provider and retailer of Riso Africa’s office printing equipment, associated products and services.This type of conduct creates barriers to entry into the market, the watchdog said.The NaCC continued: “The exclusive agreement prevents interested distributors from trading in the supplying of Riso Africa’s office printing equipment and associated products, as well as providing after-sale services to those products. The commission is of the view that this exclusive distributorship agreement is harmful to fair competition. The Commission found the agreement to be in contravention of Section 23(1) read with Section 23(2)(b), 23(3)(e) of the Act (limiting or restricting market outlets or access).”There are however, other products available in Namibia such as Duplo, Ricoh and Nashua which compete with the Riso digital duplicators, the NaCC said.“However, the commission’s investigation found that the Riso digital duplicators make up a substantial part of the market. The commission’s investigation further found that, as a result of the exclusive agreement, there is no intra-brand competition as far as the distribution of the Riso related products, is concerned.“On the other hand, however, intra-brand competition was found to exist between other brands of digital duplicators. Other brands are also not distributed through exclusive distributorship agreements and any interested party can distribute such brands,” according to the NaCC.The NaCC said it is willing to engage with Maxes and Riso with the objective of settling the matter in terms of Section 40 of the Competition Act and to avoid proceedings in terms of Section 38 of the Competition Act.

Competition watchdog wants to take Maxes, Riso to court

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Republikein 2025-05-14

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Competition watchdog wants to take Maxes, Riso to court

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