A Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed Multichoice’s suit against the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for restricting it from raising prices.
In a decision issued on Thursday, Justice James Omotosho ruled that the claim was an abuse of the court’s process because it was brought after a similar suit on the same topic was filed by Festus Onifade, with Multichoice and FCCPC as parties.
Justice Omotosho stated that a previous claim filed by Onifade before the same Federal High Court in Abuja, to which Multichoice is a party, was still pending when Multichoice chose to file this new suit.
The judge said Multichoice could ventilate the issues in the suit filed by Onifade by simply filing a counter claim rather than filing a separate suit.
The judge proceeded to decline jurisdiction and dismissed the suit.
However, Justice Omotosho went ahead to determine the case on the merit and held that since Nigeria runs a free market economy, the FCCPC lacked the power to interfere in the decisions of private companies to fix their prices.
The judge held that under Section 88 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, it is only the president of the FRN that can regulate prices in a regulated industry and for essential goods, not the kind of services being rendered by the Multichoice where consumers have choices.
Justice James Omotosho held that the FCCPC has no business querying how companies fix their prices in a free market economy.
