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The CCI earlier imposed a combined penalty of over Rs 2,500 crores on 14 carmakers for indulging in unfair practices in the spare parts market, the latest in a series of tough enforcement actions by the newest among India's regulators. Nissan, is one of the 14 companies and faces the lowest penalty of Rs 1.63 crore, moved the Madras High Court against CCI's order. Meanwhile, Hyundai has questioned CCI why it had left out 12 companies without ascribing any reason.
Nissan's Counsel Anirudh Krishnan has told the Court on Monday that the company wanted to withdraw the writ with liberty to approach the Competition Appellate Tribunal. The court allowed the company to withdraw the petition with liberty to approach the Tribunal.
While legal experts said that the company's decision to withdraw the petition is to approach the Appellate Tribunal, company spokesperson said "we are studying our options and will take an appropriate decision soon".
Hyundai questioned CCI's decision on leaving out other OEMs.
During yesterday's argument Hyundai Motor India, the wholly owned subsidiary of the South Korean car maker Hyundai, has questioned CCI's decision on leaving out 12 OEMs from the enquiry. The company also questioned the Director General's Jurisdiction.
In his argument at the Madras High Court Senior Counsel Arvind Datar, who appeared for Hyundai, questioned CCI why it had left out 12 companies, without ascrbing any reason and how the other 14 companies were selected.
He also said the Director General don't have any Jurisdiction or any power to do so. He noted, While the complaint was only against three companies (Fiat, Honda and Volkswagen), others were included in the Director General's investigation due to the prevalence of anti-competitive issues throughout the automobile industry. DG is the investigation arm of CCI.
It may be noted, in a 215-page order, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty totaling Rs 2,544.64 crore on the 14 car companies. For each entity, the individual fine amounts to 2% of their average turnover.
Among the 14 carmakers, the maximum fine of Rs 1,346.46 crore has been slapped on Tata Motors, followed by Maruti Suzuki (Rs 471.14 crore), Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 292.25 crore) and Toyota Kirloskar Motors (Rs 93.38 crore).
The fine on others are General Motors (Rs 84.58 crore), Honda Siel (Rs 78.47 crore), Skoda Auto India (Rs 46.39 crore), Ford India (Rs 39.78 crore), Fiat India Automobiles (Rs 29.98 crore), BMW India (Rs 20.41 crore), Mercedes-Benz (Rs 23.08 crore), Hindustan Motors (Rs 13.85 crore), Volkswagen India (Rs 3.25 crore) and Nissan Motors (Rs 1.63 crore).
