1 week ago
CCI Penalises Agro Input Associations for Cartelisation and Bid Rigging
India’s competition watchdog found that some agro-input associations and people had acted together in ways that could reduce fair competition.
It ordered them to stop this conduct.
It also gave them fines totaling several amounts.
The watchdog required the associations to hold training about competition rules.
In a separate case, two companies were accused of working together on a tyre tender.
Emails containing private price information were exchanged before bids were submitted.
The watchdog called this bid rigging.
One official was fined, while proceedings against an official from the other company ended after his death.
The Competition Commission of India fined two agro-input associations and four individuals for cartelisation.
The penalties included Rs 81,889 for AIDA and Rs 3,92,269 for AIWA.
The CCI ordered the parties to cease the unlawful conduct and conduct competition-compliance training.
Rekha Agencies and SS Marketing were fined for allegedly rigging bids in a Himachal Pradesh tyre tender.
The CCI said commercially sensitive price-bid emails showed coordinated conduct before the tender submission.
- Who
- The Competition Commission of India; Agro Input Dealers Association; Agro Input Welfare Association; four named individuals; Rekha Agencies; and SS Marketing.
- What
- The CCI imposed monetary and non-monetary sanctions for cartelisation and bid rigging.
- Where
- New Delhi, with the separate bid-rigging case involving a Himachal Pradesh tender.
- When
- The decisions were announced on Friday; the tender case concerned Himachal Pradesh Tender 2013.
- Why
- The CCI found anti-competitive conduct, including cartelisation and coordinated price bidding.
Key facts
- Regulator
- Competition Commission of India (CCI)
- Agro-input penalties
- Rs 81,889 on AIDA; Rs 3,92,269 on AIWA; Rs 4,98,903 on Manmohan C. Kalantri; and Rs 74,717 on Arvindbhai Jerambhai Patel.
- Individual penalties
- Rs 9,177 on Pravinbhai Patel and Rs 8,622 on Sanjay Kumar Raghuwanshi.
- Additional measure
- The CCI ordered competition-compliance training for the agro-input associations and related parties.
- Tender penalties
- Rs 1,29,901 on Rekha Agencies and Rs 2,13,274 on SS Marketing.
- Tender involved
- Himachal Pradesh Tender 2013 for the procurement of tyres.
- Evidence cited
- Contemporaneous emails exchanged commercially sensitive price-bid information before bids were submitted.
Sources
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