The rising role of the bitcoin: the World’s first decentralised virtual currency

During 2007 – 2009, an individual/group with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin and released the blueprint for the open-source digital currency onto the internet. It is the world’s first decentralised virtual currency. However, the Bitcoin is merely the first of its kind, with other competing alternative virtual currencies (with their own features and supply limits) already emerging. Bitcoin’s market cap is currently over $1 billion.

Bread consumers should be compensated for bread cartel

In December 2006, the Competition Commission was informed of a potential bread cartel in the Western Cape. The offending firms were penalised by the Competition Tribunal for their behaviour. The penalties imposed by the Tribunal are collected by the National Treasury, so they function mainly to punish the firms, rather than to compensate market participants for the damage caused. However, an interesting development in this case has been that a private collective action by end consumers has also been initiated against the offending firms.

Risky seed merger rulings

Historically, the South African maize seed market has been dominated by three major players, namely the two multinationals Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. and Monsanto and the local South African company Pannar Seed. In 2010, Pioneer made an offer to acquire Pannar, and subsequently applied to the Competition Commission for approval. The Commission and Tribunal recommended that this merger be prohibited, but on 28 May 2012, the Competition Appeals Court reversed and allowed the merger to proceed with conditions provided by the merging parties.