NCLAT Upholds CCI’s No-penalty Order Due to Small Turnover and COVID Impact

Case Details: Chief Materials Manager, Eastern Railway v. BIC Auto (P.) Ltd. - [2023] 152 taxmann.com 260 (NCLAT-New Delhi)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Rakesh Kumar Jain, Judicial Member & Naresh Salecha, Technical Member
  • Siddhartha Sinha, Adv. for the Appellant.
  • Tarun Donadi, Manas Kumar Chaudhuri, Pranjal Prateek, Ms Nilar Banerjee, Ms Prerana Amitabh, Ms Hemangini Dadwal, Ms Nikita Agarwal & Ms Malhar Desai, Advs. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

In the instant case, the officers of the Eastern Railway (respondent) were involved in collusive practices within the Composite Brake Blocks (CBB) market in India.

They were engaged in activities such as price-fixing, market allocation, bid coordination, and bid manipulation, which significantly negatively impacted competition within the country.

Consequently, the Competition Commission (CCI) by impugned order found respondents to be guilty of contravention of provisions of section 3.

However, observing that most of the respondents were having small annual turnover and in view of the prevailing Covid-19 outbreak, refrained from imposing any monetary penalty on respondents and cautioned them that their future conduct would be strictly in accord with the provisions of the Act.

Subsequently, the Appellant-informant preferred instant appeal and submitted that Commission had not imposed a suitable penalty.

NCLAT Held

Pursuant to the appeal, the NCLAT held that since Commission has jurisdiction to pass all or any of the orders mentioned in Section 27, there was no reason to interfere with well-reasoned order passed by Commission, and an instant appeal was to be dismissed.

List of Cases Reviewed

• • Chief Materials Manager, South Eastern Railway v. Hindustan Composites Ltd. [2020] 117 taxmann.com 773 (CCI) (para 8) affirmed.