KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 ― A competition tribunal awarded today AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines a refund on a RM10 million fine they had paid to the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC).
The decision by the five-member tribunal headed by High Court judge Hasnah Mohamed Hashim on the budget and national airlines respectively was unanimous.
“We unanimously decide that the fine be refunded and the initial decision by the commission be set aside,” Hasnah said.
She added that the grounds of the ruling would be elaborated in a written judgement that will be released at a later date.
In 2014, MyCC fined AirAsia and MAS RM10 million each after they were found guilty of breaching the Competitions Act following their share swap deal in 2011, which was subsequently called off by Khazanah Nasional Bhd in 2012.
According to the Act, MyCC has no avenue for further appeals, but Hasnah said that the commission could look into the possibility of a judicial review to set aside today's decision.
MyCC previously claimed that the share swap deal had infringed Section 4(2)(b) of the Act, which prohibited horizontal and vertical agreements with the objective of sharing market and sources of supply.
Both MAS and Air Asia have insisted that they never ran afoul of the Competitions Act, and also disputed MyCC's ruling, which was based on transactions that happened before the Act came into effect on January 1, 2012.
Logan Sabapathy acted as lead counsel for MAS, while Leonard Yeoh was lead counsel for Air Asia.
Nahendran Navaratnam acted on behalf of MyCC.
