SISTIC HANDED BIG FINE




TICKETING giant Sistic was fined $989,000 yesterday, the heaviest sanction handed down by the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) since it began policing the Republic's entrepreneurial landscape in 2006 to ensure a level playing field.

The CCS ruled that Sistic had abused its dominant position in the ticketing industry to block other firms from competing, and harmed consumer interests in the process.

It did this by forcing 17 event promoters and two of the biggest venues in Singapore - the Esplanade and Indoor Stadium - into signing exclusive contracts with it.

This meant that anyone here who wanted to watch a concert or play at either venue would have had no choice but to buy a ticket from Sistic.

This effectively locked up 60 to 70 per cent of all ticket deals in Singapore.

Customers were deprived of choice, and were forced to swallow higher ticket prices as a result, the CCS said.

RESPONSE:
I was understood that in Singapore its illegal to adjust price of good or services at own will. The reason is because Singapore practice price ceiling. Price ceiling is the legally established maximum price a seller can charge and the government sets a maximum price below the equilibrium price.(I took out my microeconmics book just to type this!!)

Shortage of supply occurs and this led to growth of black markets. The effectiveness of the price ceiling is to enable the authorities to restrict total supply thus release resources for more urgent needs. Besides that, the purpose of price ceiling is to protect buyers from the poorer section of the community. Therefore, poor people pay less for a particular good or service.

I clearly remembered that my microeconomics lecture and tutor,Mr Puar, brought this topic up in the tutorial class. We were discussing about a question on price ceiling when he mentioned about Competition Commission of Singapore(CCS) eyeing on SISTIC. There were rumors that SISTIC charge higher than the price ceiling set by the government and make personal arrangements with promoters to sell tickets at higher price. And since there was no other fierce competitors, SISTIC was able to adjust its ticket price freely. This is illegal under Singapore's law.

So actually when I watch shows or concerts,I was paying more for the tickets and this frustrates me!! I used my hard-earned money,begged my Dad to pay half the cost and even saved my school pocket money just to get the ticket for a concert. This seems unfair to me.

In future,such organizations that set higher price than the price ceiling will be caught by the authorities.

NURHIDAYAH