CCI investigating fresh cases against DLF

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) today said it is investigating fresh cases of alleged abuse of dominance by realty major DLF.
"The DLF case, which we had decided and which was upheld substantially by the appellate tribunal, is now in the Supreme Court that will be heard by the court. So, we will await their decision...," CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla told reporters here.
He was responding to a question on issues of jurisdiction of the CCI in a case relating to alleged adoption of "unfair business practices" by DLF.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry event, he said "meanwhile there are fresh matters which have come to us in relation to DLF projects in the area where they are held to be dominant by us. So, those matters are getting investigated."

"We will see how it goes, and eventually of course the decision of the Supreme Court will guide us in all such matters," he added.
In the second week of February, the CCI ordered a probe against DLF, finding the company to have prima-facie abused its dominant position. It relates to alleged "abuse of dominant position in development and sale of residential units in Gurgaon" for the Skycourt residential project of DLF Universal Ltd.

This came close on the heels of another probe ordered by the CCI into similar complaints related to the 'Regal Gardens at DLF Garden City' project in Gurgaon.

With regard to a few other projects, all of which have been incidentally been in Gurgaon, the CCI has already found DLF guilty of having abused its dominant market position. In one such case, the CCI had imposed a penalty of Rs 630 crore on DLF in August 2011.
The company challenged that order before the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which upheld the penalty, pursuant to which DLF has gone to the Supreme Court.
To a question on adding more people to CCI with its role getting more active, Chawla said "Definitely, the government has given us the total sanctioned strength of two hundred, we don't even have that in position."

"We have about two third of that, so we first need to scale up to those levels , but I think sooner than later may be over the next couple of years we will have to move for increased numbers as a whole," he said.
"So that's an ongoing process, which we try to bridge the gap every year," he added.