The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has conducted raids on the premises of four tyre manufacturers, including Apollo Tyres and MRF, over alleged breach of law violation and cartelisation.
The country’s competition regulator also conducted raids on the premises of Germany’s Continental AG, the manufacturer of Continental Tyres, and Ceat. The raids were conducted across the headquarters of these companies and premises of some of the leading dealers of these companies, sources close to the development said.
Searches were conducted at the headquarters of Apollo Tyres and Continental in New Delhi, MRF in Chennai and Ceat in Mumbai, they added.
“Continental can confirm that officials have visited our office in Faridabad on March 30 in an ongoing investigation. Continental is fully cooperating with the authorities. We are unable to provide any detailed comment as the matter is ongoing,” Continental said in an email statement.
An Apollo Tyres spokesperson declined to comment, while that of MRF could not be immediately reached.
“The CCI officials visited the Ceat office today for a routine enquiry. As a responsible corporate, we are cooperating with the authorities in the investigation. We categorically deny any wrongdoing in our conduct of business,” Ceat spokesperson Sumeet Chatterjee said.
Earlier in February, CCI had penalised five tyre manufacturers – who control over 90% of the tyre production in India – and a lobbying firm, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) for price-fixing and control of supply. The regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 425.53 crore on Apollo Tyres, Rs 622.09 crore on MRF, Rs 252.16 crore on Ceat, Rs 309.95 crore on JK Tyre, Rs 178.33 crore on Birla Tyres and Rs 8.4 lakh on ATMA.
Also Read: Volkswagen Virtus production begins in India: Launch soon
In a bid to prevent cartelisation, the commission had also directed ATMA not to collect wholesale and retail prices through the tyre manufacturers.
The commission noted that the tyre manufacturers had exchanged price-sensitive data amongst them through the ATMA’s platform and had taken collective decisions on the prices of tyres. The commission also found that ATMA collected and compiled information relating to the company- and segment-wise data (both monthly and cumulative) on production, domestic sales and export of tyres on a real-time basis.
CCI also held certain individuals of the tyre companies and ATMA liable for anti-competitive practices.
