Publishers Taken To Tribunal Over Textbooks 'cartel'

The city's anti-trust regulator is taking legal action against three publishing companies that sold textbooks to primary and secondary school students.

The Competition Commission alleges that TH Lee Book Company, Commercial Press, and Sino United Publishing engaged in price-fixing, market-sharing and bid-rigging.

Such practices fall foul of the Competition Ordinance's "First Conduct Rule", which prohibits agreements that prevent, restrict, or distort competition.

The commission is also taking action against the general manager of TH Lee Book Company, Hui Chiu-ming.

The watchdog said on Friday that it wants the Competition Tribunal to impose financial penalties on the accused, and disqualify Hui as a company director.

It said the cartel arrangement was arrived at before the full implementation of Hong Kong's competition law in late 2015, but the companies continued it afterwards.

Commission CEO Brent Snyder said the watchdog is still able to take action in such instances.

"This case highlights the risks to businesses that reach cartel agreements, even those that continue in cartels which began before the ordinance came into full effect. To be clear, the commission will investigate and take action against any such agreements that began or continued after the ordinance came into full effect", Snyder said.