16 operators colluded to set minimum prices for tickets
The amount of fines payable depends on the company's size and the amount earned from price-fixing. -- ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW
SIXTEEN coach operators plying between Singapore and Malaysia and their association have been fined $1.69 million for price-fixing.
The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) has found the companies and the Executive Bus Agencies Association (EBAA) guilty of setting a minimum price for coach tickets sold here and for a fuel and insurance surcharge on each ticket.
This collusion took place between 2006 and June last year.
The fines, ranging from $10,000 to $518,167, are pegged to the company's size and the amount earned from the price-fixing.
The total fine is the biggest penalty handed down by the CCS, which promotes healthy competition in the various industries and administers the Competition Act.
In the only other time it has wielded its powers, it fined six pest exterminators a total of $263,000 for bid-rigging in January last year.
Penalties imposed
1. Transtar Travel $518,167
2. Five Stars Tours $450,207
3. Konsortium Express & Tours $337,635
4. Regent Star Travel $103,875
5. Gunung Raya Travel $76,668
6. GR Travel $52,432
7. Grassland Express & Tours $27,706
8. Sri Maju Tours & Travel $24,600
9. Enjoy Holiday Tour $23,425
10. WTS Travel & Tours $13,611
11. Alisan $10,807
12. Travelzone Network Services $10,000
13. T&L Tours $10,000
14. Nam Ho Travel Service $10,000
15. Lapan Lapan Travel $10,000
16. Luxury Tours & Travel $10,000
17. Express Bus Agencies Association $10,000
Total: $1,699,133
16 coach companies fined
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