Competition Commission in action DTH operators Kingfisher and banks investigated for anti-competition practices

The Competition Commission of India has received its Director-General (Investigation)’s report on the alleged anti-competitive practices engaged in by DTH operators, and banks levying pre-payment charges on loans. Kingfisher Airlines, in the meantime, failed to obtain a stay from the Bombay High Court on the CCI’s preliminary investigation into its alliance with Jet Airways..As reported by Bar & Bench in August, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been investigating the complaint of a frequent flier that the Jet Airways-Kingfisher Airlines alliance indicates the formation of a cartel by the country’s largest private airlines; the Commission has also been looking into the Consumer Online Foundation’s (COF) complaint against DTH operators who have failed to make their set-top boxes inter-operable..Dish TV, Reliance Big, Tata Sky and Sun Direct, the major DTH service providers in the country, have been made parties to the complaint. Sources indicate that the CCI may soon issue notice against these companies to explain why their set-top boxes have not been equipped with a Conditional Access Module (CAM), a card that allows for inter-operability of the boxes. The findings of the investigation conducted by the Acting Director General (Investigation) (DGI) of the CCI, K.K. Sharma, have reportedly stated that the DTH operators are guilty of limiting consumer choices by preventing inter-operability of the set-top boxes. APJ-SLG Law Offices, who are representing the COF in this complaint, could not be reached for comment..The Kingfisher-Jet alliance could also soon be facing the CCI’s censure, as the Bombay High Court on Friday refused Kingfisher’s plea to stay the CCI’s investigation into the alliance between the two airlines. The two-judge Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Patel and Justice Gavai, held that since the CCI had not passed even an ad interim order against Kingfisher, it would not “be in the interest of Justice to forestall all the proceedings before [the CCI].” Senior Counsel Navroze Seervai, briefed by Bachubai Munim and Co., Kingfisher’s standing counsels, appeared for the airline before the Court. The Competition Commission engaged Partner Suhail Nathani of Economic Laws Practice to instruct Senior Counsel T. Andhyarujina on their behalf..News channel CNBC-TV18 also reports that the CCI has found banks’ charge on pre-payment of loans anti-competitive. The DGI’s investigation has reportedly found that banks act as a cartel to levy pre-payment charges on loans. Sources speculate that the CCI may order the banks to refund these charges, as well as imposing a fine on the levy of said charges.