Two food delivery companies fined for ‘monopolization’

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Based on reports made by the Competition Protection Authority (CPA), Ministry of Interior (MOI) investigations identified that two foreign restaurant delivery companies had made over KD 4 million by monopolizing the the local market, local Arabic daily reported.

According to report, Competition Protection Authority informed the two companies to remove their violations and pay fines proportionate to the profits they attained by monopolizing the business, however the companies had refused to execute the decisions within the specified grace period, which resulted in the doubling of the fine amount.

Furthermore, the report also added that most of the manpower hired by the two concerned companies hold article 20 visas (domestic laborers), which is a violation of residency laws.

According to report, the issue began in 2017 when the two companies signed exclusive contracts with restaurants, forcing the latter not to sign similar contracts with any other delivery company. This condition obligated many restaurants to terminate the contracts they signed with other delivery companies; forcing those companies to file several complaints to Competition Protection Authority.

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