CCI dismisses complaint against Arthur Flury's Indian distributor

The CCI has dismissed allegations of unfair trade practices against PPS International, the authorised Indian distributor of Swiss electrical component maker Arthur Flury AG, with regard to supply of Short Neutral Section (SNS) Assembly.

The complaint was made by Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE).

According to a CCI order, SNS Assembly is used mainly by the railways to isolate different phases of power supply in adjoining over head equipment fed by adjacent substations, which are normally connected to different phases of supply.

It was alleged that PPS had abused its dominant position to increase the prices of SNS Assembly artificially.

For the case, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) considered the "market for supply of SNS Assembly in India", as the relevant one.

Following an examination of the percentage increase in the prices of SNS Assembly from 2006 to 2018, the fair trade regulator said there "has not been" a continuous trend of price increase over a period of time which could show excessive prices being charged by PPS.

Also between 2013 and 2018, there was no increase in the prices and in year 2016, prices even decreased, the CCI said in its order dated August 27.

The price trend does not support the allegation of abuse of dominant position made by the complainant by artificially determining the sale price, it added.

Among others, it was also alleged that PPS entered into an agreement with Arthur Flury AG and thereby artificially jacked up the prices of SNS Assembly in violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act.

Section 3 pertains to anti-competitive agreements.

However, noting that the provisions of Section 3 are not applicable to the present case as PPS (distributor) and Arthur Flury AG (manufacturer) are operating at different levels of the production chain in different markets, the regulator said that prima facie the provisions "are not attracted".