Big tech companies in the spotlight as South Africa investigates dominance abuse

Big tech companies are facing increased scrutiny in South Africa for dominance abuse and anti-competitive behavior, just months after the country's competition regulators started an inquiry into the conduct of online intermediation.

Apple, Booking.com, and South Africa's Mr Delivery are some of the companies that have been found to be in violation of the law.

The inquiry team is looking for further evidence from parties affected by the competition or market feature of these platforms. Comments regarding findings in the report will be included in the final phase of the inquiry.

Both Apple and GOOGLE are present.

The default position of the search engine on mobile devices was problematic. There is a lack of clear distinction between organic search findings and paid search results according to the study.

The top search results should be organically generated, adverts shaded or labeled, and paid results placed at the bottom of the results page, according to the report.

There is a proposal for a search remedy on mobile devices. The South Africa Competition Commission is pictured.

It called for an end to the preference for its own specialist (shopping, travel and local) search tools by the company.

The same opportunity to provide content and visual rich impressions or units that it affords its own specialist shopping, travel and local search units must be given to competing metasearch or specialist search. CompCom said that minimum bid thresholds may no longer be imposed by the search engine.

It recommended an end to the default arrangements for search on both phones and tablets.

Competition for commission fees is impeded by the exclusion of competing software app stores and side- loading by Apple. Competition from other software app stores has been affected by the default arrangements of GOOGLE PLAY.

The scheme is funded by taking discounts from app developers, a strategy that hinders competition from smaller players, according to the regulators.

The lack of competition has resulted in excessive commission fees to the detriment of South African app developers, publishers and consumers.

Since Apple will not allow competition and refuses to compromise on security, there needs to be a remedy that regulates these platforms or takes transactions off the stores altogether so they cannot be monitored and taxed. According to the report, the inquiry believes that either there is price regulation or an end to anti-steering provisions which were recommended by the court in the Apple case.

The Commission called for an end to anti-steering provisions for all apps and for the end of exclusionary loyalty schemes in its recommendations.

The inquiry expects that an end to anti-steering provisions will involve the ability for apps to communicate an alternative payment mechanism and provide a link to make a payment.

Delivery platforms for food.

The selection of food delivery partners should not be restricted by international restaurant chains. The removal of price parity clauses, which require suppliers not to offer better or lower prices in other or their own platforms, was one suggestion.

The removal and prohibition of price parity clauses used by Booking.com and Airbnb were found to impede competition through lower commissions and prices that increased consumer dependency.

The platforms were found to use important visibility on their platform to get discounts from accommodation and travel providers. The practice is unfair to small players that can't leverage the same. The removal of exclusionary loyalty schemes should be funded by the companies according to the recommendation.

E- commerce and classified ads.

Competition was stifled by e- commerce platforms as they distorted pricing in the market through subsidization. CompCom suggested that Takealot remove price parity clauses and end predatory conduct, or alternatively the Commission should investigate and prosecute predatory conduct as a deterrent.

The inquiry found that the listing engine software used by South Africa's top classifieds platforms impeded competition. The scrapping of fees and interoperability were recommended.