The story of a Rs 1,788 crore fine: Tyre makers, cartelisation and calculation errors
MRF Ltd.
The case relates to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT's) December order asking the CCI, India's anti-monopoly watchdog, to reconsider and recalculate the fine it imposed on tyre companies over alleged cartelisation and price manipulation.
A bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice on Monday to the CCI, and also tagged the MRF's appeal with that of the one that the CCI had made, ET has reported.
In April, the top court, while hearing the CCI's appeal against the NCLAT order, had refused to stay the appellate tribunal's order.
How it began
The case at the CCI started more than a decade ago after the Ministry of Corporate Affairs referred it based on allegations of cartelisation against five tyre companies made by the All India Tyre Dealers Federation (AITDF). The AITDF alleged that the five domestic tyre companies were indulging in anti-competitive activities and price parallelism, and they controlled 90% of the tyre production in the country.
It was also alleged that these companies increased tyre prices under the guise of a rise in the prices of raw materials, including natural rubber, but they did not decrease the prices of tyres when raw material prices fell.
Penalties
On August 31, 2018, the CCI passed an order imposing penalties on the tyre companies.
But the order wasn't delivered to them until February 2022, following the Supreme Court's final approval.
The CCI passed the order in 2018. However, it was kept in a sealed cover as per the direction of the Madras High Court in a petition filed by MRF Ltd.
