The chairman of the Fiji Commerce Commission says an attack on one of its staff members may have been provoked by fear of what an investigation into pricefixing could uncover.
Mahendra Reddy says the alleged assault occurred on Friday after the Commission took out a court order to compel hardware companies to provide information relating to its investigation into pricefixing in the industry.
Dr Reddy says the staff member, who's a team leader, sustained bruises to his head in the attack, but is now back at work.
He says the staff member was warned to stop what he was doing.
"My feeling is that there may be something bigger that this investigation could unravel, probably that's why they are concerned about the commission investigating this. So yes, that's all I can say."
Mahendra Reddy says there have always been problems with pricefixing in the hardware industry and only two operators had been co-operating with the investigation.
