INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
CCI invoked the provisions of Competition Act, 2002 against Eveready, Nippo
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) passed final order imposing penalty on
three leading Indian Zinc-Carbon Dry Cell Battery manufacturers: Eveready Industries, Indo National Ltd (Nippo), Panasonic Energy India Co
and their association AIDCM (Association of Indian Dry Cell Manufacturers) for colluding to fix prices of zinc-carbon dry cell battery in
136 Crore For 'Search Bias' By Competition CommissionCCI invoked the provisions of Section 46 of the Competition Act, 2002 read with the
Competition Commission of India (Lesser Penalty) Regulations, 2009 ('Lesser Penalty Regulations') to reduce the penalty imposed upon
Panasonic, Eveready and Nippo by 100 percent, 30 percent and 20 percent respectively .The case against these battery manufacturers was
taken-up by CCI suo motu under Section 19 of the Act based on the disclosure by Panasonic under Section 46 of the Act read with the Lesser
During investigation, DG (Investigation), CCI in exercise of the powers vested with it under Section 41(3) of the Act carried-out
simultaneous search and seizure operations at the premises of Eveready, Nippo and Panasonic on 23 August 2016 and seized incriminating
material and documents there from.Subsequently, while the investigation was in progress and report from the DG was pending, Eveready and
Nippo, approached CCI as lesser penalty applicants.From the evidence collected in the case, CCI found that the three battery manufacturers,
facilitated by AIDCM, had indulged in anticompetitive conduct of price coordination, limiting production/ supply as well as market
allocation in contravention of the provisions of Section 3(3)(a), 3(3)(b) and 3(3)(c) read with Section 3(1) of the Act
It was observed that the conduct was continuing from 2008, which is prior to May 20, 2009, the date on which Section 3 of the Act became
enforceable, and up till August 23 2016, the date of search and seizure operations by the DG.Considering contravention of provisions of the
Act, an amount of Rs 245.07 crore, Rs 52.82 crore and Rs 74.68 crore was computed as leviable penalty on three battery manufacturers i.e
Eveready, Nippo and Panasonic, respectively, in terms of proviso to Section 27 (b) of the Act.While computing leviable penalty, CCI took
into consideration all relevant factors including duration of cartel, industry conditions, etc
and decided to levy penalty on the three battery manufacturers at the rate of 1.25 times of their profit for each year from 2009-10 to
1.85 Lakh was levied on AIDCM at the rate of 10 percent of average of its receipts for preceding three years
Additionally, considering totality of facts and circumstances of the case, penalty leviable on individual officials/ office bearers of the
three battery manufacturers and AIDCM was computed at the rate of 10 percent of the average of their income for preceding three
years.Keeping in view the stage at which the lesser penalty application was filed, co-operation extended in conjunction with the value
addition provided in establishing the existence of cartel, CCI granted Panasonic and its individuals 100 percent reduction in the penalty
than was otherwise leviable
Eveready and Nippo, along with their individuals, were granted 30 and 20 percent reduction in penalty respectively.(This story has not been
edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
