CCI imposes penalty of Rs. 1,00,60,794 on Ghaziabad Development Authority

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,00,60,794 on Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for abuse of its dominant position by imposing unfair condition on the allottees from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in its Pratap Vihar Residential Housing Scheme.

The CCI held that conduct of GDA in raising the price of EWS flats from the initial price of Rs. 2,00,000 in 2008 to Rs. 7,00,000 in 2015 under the said scheme without any enabling provision either in the brochure of the scheme or allotment letter is arbitrary and unilateral.

The condition for levying penal interest at 10.5 percent per annum in case of delay in the payment of the quarterly instalments by the allottees without a corresponding provision for GDA in case delay of in giving possession of the flats is abusive, being one sided and unfair.

The CCI held that such conduct of GDA is in violation of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act.

Resultantly, the CCI has imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,00,60,794 on GDA for the anti-competitive conduct.

Besides, a cease and desist order was also issued against GDA.