Malaysia Federal Court affirms Court of Appeal’s decision against MyEG

28 April 2022

On 9 February 2022, the Malaysia Federal Court dismissed an appeal by MyEG Services Sdn. Bhd. and MyEG Commerce Sdn. Bhd. (collectively, “MyEG”) against an RM9.33 million fine for abusing its dominant position. The bulk of the financial penalty consisted of the accumulation of the daily penalty of RM7,500, which was imposed for each day that MyEG failed to adhere to MyCC’s directions. MyCC’s case against MyEG was the first ever abuse of dominance decision issued in Malaysia.

The Federal Court found that MyEG’s application did not meet the threshold for leave to appeal under section 96 of the Court of Judicature Act 1964 (“CJA”) to warrant a further review. By way of background, section 96 of the CJA provides that the appeal must involve a question of law which is of general principle not previously decided by the Federal Court or involve a question of importance upon which a decision by the Federal Court would be to the public’s advantage or both.

In June 2016, MyEG was fined for abusing its dominant position in the market for the management of online applications to renew permits for foreign workers. MyCC found that MyEG’s policy of making it mandatory for foreign worker applicants to purchase certain insurance policies was an abuse of a dominant position.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) upheld MyCC’s decision in December 2017, finding that MyEG had indeed abused its dominant position by imposing different conditions to equivalent transactions in the purchase of mandatory insurance for the renewal of permits for foreign workers, and therefore infringed the Competition Act 2010.

MyEG’s present appeal stemmed from the High Court of Malaya’s dismissal of MyEG’s application for a judicial review in respect of the CAT’s decision.

On 3 May 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the fine imposed by the High Court and the CAT, ruling that there was no irregularity in the High Court judge’s findings, which upheld the decision made by the CAT in 2017.

With the dismissal of the application, MyCC’s first ever abuse of dominance imposition of a total fine of RM9.33 million against MyEG stands.

The full judgment has yet to be made public.