President Piñera condemns collusion: “Free competition is essential to the proper functioning of a market economy”
The President addressed the topic on Friday after the Free Competition Tribunal sanctioned three companies for participating in a price-fixing agreement for the sales price of fresh chicken.
President Sebastián Piñera condemned this Friday the conspiratorial practices and highlighted the importance of promoting and safeguarding free competition to ensure the proper functioning of a market economy.
“Free competition ensures that the competition between different companies benefits the consumer, by lowering prices or improving quality,” said the President at the Courthouse after attending the Public Address of Supreme Court President, Haroldo Brito.
“When there is collusion, not only does it disrupt and morally violate the system, but also the virtue inherent to social market economies, that competition is to the benefit of the consumer, is also lost. For this reason, any kind of collusion must be condemned very severely,” added the President.
The President underscored the role of the National Consumer Service to safeguard the rights of all citizens in cases of collusion, “an anti-competitive behavior that we have no hesitation in condemning and we will not permit,” he said.