The ruling by the Tribunal was a land-mark decision relating to the relationship between suppliers and their distributors and instances where such a relationship, due to a lack of sufficient independence between the parties, cannot be characterised as the type of conduct which the legislature intended to prohibit as collusive conduct in terms of section 4(1)(b) of the Act. The Tribunal further dismissed charges against SAB and its authorised distributors relating to vertical restrictive practices, resale price maintenance and prohibited price discrimination.
On 14 April 2014 the Competition Commission appealed this decision by the Tribunal to the Competition Appeal Court on, amongst others, the following grounds: