The federal government has said Point of Sale (PoS agents found guilty of price fixing will pay a fine of up to N10 million or a three-month prison sentence.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission disclosed this in a statement on Monday by its Executive Vice Chairman, Babatunde Irukera.

Recall that PoS agents under the aegis of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents, AMMBAN, had increased their service charges for withdrawals and deposits.

Consequently, the FCCPC entered an Order and Notice (ONC) served to the executives of AMMBAN, prohibiting PoS agents from further implementing the price increment.

The Commission warned that the disobedience of its ONC would be met with severe punishment.

FCCPC explained that violating its Order would attract a one million Naira fine for individual PoS agents and N10 million for corporate agents, or a three-month prison sentence.

“The FCCPA provides the Commission with statutory tools to ensure compliance and penalize law violations. As previously noted, some of these penalties are stiff.

“The Commission advises PoS operators that violation of an order of the Commission attracts additional consequences apart from the underlying illegal conduct that is the subject of the order, such as up to N10,000,000 for corporate entities and N1,000,000 and or a prison sentence of up to three months for individuals”, the statement contained.