Malaysia’s Competitions Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has sided with Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM), reversing a ruling by the Malaysian Competition Commission's (MyCC) decision on vehicle repair costs.
In 2020, MyCC ruled that the PIAM Approved Repairers Scheme (PARS) violated the Competition Act 2010 by offering discounts on automotive parts and hourly labour rates from affiliated workshops.
The CAT, which is composed of three members, unanimously decided that MyCC made a fundamental error in its finding on law and facts, Edge Markets reported.
“The tribunal finds that the PIAM members circular 132 in 2011 did not infringe Section 4(1) of the Competition Act 2010,” the CAT’s decision said. “Hence, it follows that there is no finding of liability on the part of the insurers and PIAM under the anti-competition law.”
According to the CAT, it was inaccurate to state that the parts trade discounts and labour rates were determined by insurers. The tribunal sided with PIAM’s submission, which said that there is no market for fixing the minimum labour rate for car repairs and trade discounts of spare parts.
CAT also noted that PARS workshops are free to give or not give the discounts, which range from 1% up to 25%.
“This is not a case that PARS workshops must give a discount rate of 25% for spare parts of certain particular car models,” the tribunal said.
