The European Commission is watching the developments at the Maltese Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority closely and is in contact with the government over the issue, the Times of Malta is informed.
This followed reports that the MCCAA is not able to impose any fines when detecting Competition Act breaches because of a Court of Appeal decision last May.
A Commission spokesman confirmed that Brussels was closely watching the situation but refused to give more details.
Sources in Brussels said the Commission was taking the matter seriously because competition in the internal market was considered to be one of the most important pillars of an effective EU.
“The fact that the competition watchdog in Malta is crippled and that it is taking so long for the authorities to straighten out the problems is very worrying to us. We feel the issue needs to be tackled head-on,” the sources said.
The issue needs to be tackled head-on
The Court of Appeal had confirmed an earlier ruling in a case instituted by the Federation of Real Estate Agents. The court declared that the Director General for Competition could not decide cases over alleged breaches of competition rules and neither impose fines because only a proper court could guarantee a fair hearing.
Following this decision, changes to the law were necessary so that the MCCAA could be brought into line with the Constitution. However, the necessary legal amendments have not been made yet.
When this newspaper had asked the MCCAA about developments in a competition probe on a possible fuel cartel that had started in January 2015, the Director General for Competition said that, due to the court judgement, “the Office is not in a position to issue its decision”.
He later specified that the watchdog had continued to make decisions but could not impose fines.
The Times of Malta asked the MCCAA whether it had decided on the fuel probe, but no replies were forthcoming by the time of writing. The fuel probe was started by the MCCAA in January 2015 following a decision by the owner of a Rabat fuel station to cut the price of diesel by two cents a litre when complaints were being made about high fuel prices.
The owner immediately suspended the reduction, saying the suppliers (the Falzon Group), had ordered him to revert to the original price or else lose the higher profit margin afforded by the company.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com