Statement from the Competition Council

In accordance with the provisions of Article 33 of Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition, the Competition Council held two meetings on July 7 and 28, 2022, to study and examine the referral concerning chartered accountants.

Following deliberations and in accordance with the provisions of Article 39 of the aforementioned Law 104-12, the Council made Decision No. 80/D/2022, imposing a pecuniary sanction of three million dirhams (3,000,000) on the Order of Chartered Accountants.

This sanction was imposed due to the Order’s violation of Article 6 of the aforementioned law, which prohibits agreements, in any form or for any reason, that aim to prevent, restrict, or distort competition in a market, particularly when they seek to:

• Obstruct price formation through market forces by artificially favoring price increases or decreases;
• Limit market access or free competition by other companies.

Thus, following the investigation of this referral, the Competition Council concluded that the Order of Chartered Accountants engaged in anticompetitive practices, including:

• The implementation by Order members of an agreement regarding the setting and dissemination of a minimum average price not less than 500 dirhams per hour excluding taxes, which was made mandatory for all chartered accountants operating in the national market for financial and legal or contractual accounting audits. The Order also intervened with certain public institutions to enforce this minimum price in the tenders they concluded. These practices by the Order of chartered accountants distort free competition in the relevant market and limit access for companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to the market for accounting and financial audit services at competitive prices;
• The inclusion by the Order of Chartered Accountants in a number of its documents of anticompetitive provisions, setting a minimum price in a market open to competition, even though price setting is not among the tasks entrusted by the legislator to the Order, as defined by Law No. 15-89 governing the profession of chartered accountant and establishing an Order of Chartered Accountants.

Additionally, the Council ordered in the aforementioned decision that the Order of Chartered Accountants make the necessary amendments to remove all anticompetitive provisions from its documents within 60 days from the date of receiving this decision. After this period, a daily penalty of four thousand dirhams (4000) will be imposed on the Order of Chartered Accountants.

Done in Rabat on August 03, 2022