The Informant Movie!

ON the 24th of June, the CCM screened The Informant, at the Conference Room, CyberTower1. It is a 2009 Hollywood comedy starring Matt Damon. The plot is (very!) loosely based around the US authorities’ prosecution of a price-fixing cartel for Lysine, a food additive. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130080/

In real life, this cartel was a serious matter, involving agreement between competing producers world-wide to fix prices in a manner that was estimated to cost consumers several hundred million dollars in excessive prices. It was a classic cartel, in which senior business people from companies supposedly in competition met secretively in hotel rooms to agree prices and share out global markets. The FBI led an investigation which resulted in a fine in the US of US$100m. Subsequently, affected businesses sued for damages and competition agencies in other countries also imposed fines, following their own investigations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysine_price-fixing_conspiracy

Such cartel behaviour has been prohibited in Mauritius since November 2009, when the Competition Act 2007 came fully into effect. The Competition Commission has the power to impose fines of up to 10% of offending business’s turnover over a period of five years for breaches of the prohibition on price-fixing. Businesses coming forward as informants can receive leniency, including full immunity to fines. The CCM’s Guidelines on Collusive Agreements provide more details. http://www.ccm.mu/CCM3%20-%20Guidelines%20-%20Collusive%20Agreements_Nov09.pdf

The movie is less serious…but we hope that it helped in sensitizing businesses and consumers in Mauritius to the new competition regime.