Cape Town, Nov. 13 - South African bread distributors are considering legal action against food and pharmaceuticals group Tiger Brands after the company admitted price-fixing.
Imraahn Ismail-Mukaddam, who led a group of small-scale distributors who took the price-fixing complaint to the authorities, said up to 50 parties could take part in the class action.
"We must take this further and we are definitely considering taking this further in the form of a class action suit ...," he told reporters.
South Africa's Competition Commission said on Monday that Tiger Brands had admitted guilt in taking part in a cartel with other food companies and would pay a fine of close to 100 million rand ($14.75 million), sending Tiger Brands share price down more than 2 percent.
The stock recovered as much as 1.1 percent of the loss on Tuesday but pared gains to trade at 179.6 rand by 1227 GMT, up just 0.3 percent after news of the possible legal action.
The Competition Commission found that bakeries owned by Tiger Brands, Premier Foods Ltd and a third company had colluded to raise prices to distributors and agreed not to supply each others'.
Premier Foods was granted immunity after it provided the commission with information regarding meetings between the three. The commission said it might prosecute those who did not cooperate with its investigation.
Tiger Brands could not immediately be reached for comment.