The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) said the fines imposed ranged from RM26,363 to RM336,369.

The seven companies are SAL Agencies Sdn Bhd, WCS Warehousing Sdn Bhd, Regional Synergy (M) Sdn Bhd, Intrexim Sdn Bhd, Pioneerpac Sdn Bhd, Prima Warehousing Sdn Bhd, and Interocean Warehousing Services Sdn Bhd.

MyCC found in its investigations that between May 2017 and December 2019, the seven companies had formed a cartel and then colluded to fix the surcharges for the handling service for “long length and heavy lift” cargo among themselves, MyCC CEO Iskandar Ismail said in a statement.

“At the time of MyCC’s raids against the operators, it was uncovered that the operators had created a WhatsApp group and began their discussion on fixing the surcharges despite acknowledging that they were all competitors in the warehouse services market.”

He said the companies had submitted their representations to MyCC from December 2020 to March this year, and the commission had concluded that “the conduct of all the warehouse operators constitutes an infringement under Section 4 of the Competition Act 2010”.

“MyCC has always given high priority to the investigation and punishment of (those involved in) anti-competitive agreements, especially price and quota cartels, customer or territorial allocation agreements and bid rigging.

“The perpetrators of these cartels, quite literally, are stealing money from the pockets of businesses and consumers.”

He said MyCC had instructed the seven companies to distance themselves from price-fixing agreements that may disrupt competition in the handling of “long length and heavy lift” import and export cargoes.