Nasr City Court of Appeal upheld yesterday a ruling by a court of first instance imposing a LE200-million fine on 20 officials in foreign and Egyptian cement companies, LE10 million each. The court accused the officials of violating the anti-trust law. The defendants include leaders of public enterprises and private companies as well as four Arab and foreign companies. The 10-minute session was not attended by the defendants or their lawyers. The court ruling, of which Al-Masry Al-Youm got a copy, said those companies agreed to reduce production and increase prices to more than LE400 - while the cost of cement does not exceed LE150 a ton - making big profits that very much exceeded the production cost.
The defendants' lawyers said there was no evidence that companies had agreed to increase prices, that the lawsuit had been filed by some people who had no competence to do that, and that Competition Protection Agency's report is rigged. The Competition Protection Agency's report wants to reach a specific outcome, namely accusing cement companies of monopolization, the defense said. The Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center proved that the accusations against cement companies of cutting their production to increase prices are false, inaccurate and groundless, the defense said, providing 12 documents in this regard.
