Most of the top car-manufacturers selling cars in India have been facing the wrath of Competition Commission of India (CCI) over monopolization and refusal of selling spares in the open market. Top companies like Hyundai and BMW who had filed petitions in Madras High Court for relief from the fiasco has reportedly been dismissed by the court. The court had observed that CCI's investigating arm had reportedly not overstepped its brief by including the entire car sector even though initially it had received complaints only against three firms namely Volkswagen, Honda and Fiat.
Speaking more on the occasion Justice Ramasubramanian, rejecting the submissions, said to TOI, "It is clear that the role of the director-general is actually to assist the competition commission in the effective discharge of its duties... All that the director-general did was to simply place an additional information before the commission. The commission then passed an order on April 26, 2011. Thereafter, the director-general issued a notice to the companies on May 4, 2011. The moment the commission passed an order directing him to expand the scope of the investigation, Section 41(1) came into play. Therefore, I do not think that the director-general did anything in excess of what he was directed to do by the commission."
Post proceedings if found guilty over dozen odd car companies may end up paying a penalty amount of about Rs 2,550 crore for monopolistic, restrictive or unfair trade practices or anti-corruption competitive practices adopted by them. Adding further Ramasubramanian said, “The decision taken by the commission was only to expand the scope of the investigation. Therefore, I do not think that either the director-general or the CCI overstepped the jurisdiction vested in them in law.”
