I think arrogant is appropriate for the time. today they are probably sitting there thinking "What If I approached this differently?" I recallmany cycle shops were moaning back then that they needed to protect their business from CRC and other online stores that were gaining traction locally. Also parallel importers were taking distributors market share so all parties felt they needed to collude to arrive at a mutually beneficial outcome.... and therein lies the rub. raising prices is not illegal, agreeing with your "competitors" to do the same is outright illegal and unfair on the consumer. May have changed their ways in the interim but they have the opportunity to change their minds and plead guilty, learned our lesson, saw the error of ways etc etc etc. But where does all this leave us cyclists? We still going to buy product and 95% of people will still buy in the same way from the same people because likely the market is more fair today anyway. Personally I think the timing of the fine and verdict is likely more hurtful than the verdict itself. I say this because in todays economy, a cash outflow of R4.6million and R4.2million (assuming fine is 10% of turnover) means more than a months operating capital. that's a lot of profit to set aside / provision for
