The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled on the Competition Commission's legal battle against banks over currency manipulation
The Competition Commission failed in its Constitutional Court bid to prosecute some of the banks implicated in the currency manipulation saga, including three major South African banks - Standard Bank, Nedbank and First Rand.
While the Commission’s appeal succeeded against JPM Bank and SAI, it also failed against the majority of the other financial institutions, which include Bank of America Europe Designated Activity Company, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and Merrill Lynch.
The court handed down judgment in three applications for leave to appeal and one application for leave to cross-appeal a judgment of the Competition Appeal Court (CAC) delivered in January 2024, which involved an earlier CAC judgment delivered in February 2020.
Both judgments arose from appeals against two Competition Tribunal Decisions - one delivered in March 2023 and the other in June 2019. The litigation arose from a complaint initiated by the Competition Commission in April 2015 and referred to the Tribunal in February 2017.
