CCI finds DLF guilty of unfair practices, no penalty this time

Anti-competitive practices watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has charged the country’s biggest property developer DLF of abusing its dominant position in yet another high-profile residential project in Gurgaon, Haryana.

In a verdict delivered yesterday (August 29), CCI clubbed eight complaints filed by the Park Place Residents Association to direct DLF to stop formulating and imposing unfair conditions in its agreements with home buyers and formulate modified conditions in three months.

The authority did not order any penalties as it had slapped Rs 630 crore as fine against DLF on a similar complaint two weeks ago.

"The commission had imposed a penalty on DLF Ltd. The nature of contravention of provisions is identical in its object and effect in the instant cases and emerges from the position of strength of DLF in the same relevant market. Therefore, it will not be appropriate to separately impose penalty again," said the order.

 

A DLF spokesperson said, “The company and its subsidiary will be filing an appeal with Competition Appellate Tribunal since the company believed it had a strong case.”

In an earlier case, DLF was asked to pay a penalty of Rs 630.44 crore, which was seven per cent of its three years' average annual turnover.

The Park Place Resident's Welfare Association complained that DLF had diverted from the original stipulations of the agreement without keeping the buyers in loop. One such diversion was that of increasing the number of floors from 19 to 29 floors.

It was also alleged the company, being a dominant undertaking, had devised a standard agreement, which was one-sided. Besides, the CCI found DLF had announced the project before getting necessary conditions and clearances and delayed the completion of the project.