The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Competition Appellate Tribunal’s (Compat) order that directed the three aluminium phosphide tablet (APT) manufacturers to deposit 9% of the penalty on the ‘relevant (product) turnover’/affected turnover for cartelisation and price manipulation. The tablets are used for preservation of grains that are given to consumers through the public distribution system (PDS).
Dismissing cross-appeals by the companies and the CCI, a bench comprising justices AK Sikri and NV Ramana in separate but concurring judgments held that “relevant turnover” for the purposes of calculation/imposition of penalties in cartel cases should be on the “relevant (product) turnover”/affected turnover instead of the turnover of the entire company, which may be a multi-product one.
While the CCI had imposed a fine at 9% of three years’ average turnover on Excel Crop Care, United Phosphorous and Sandhya Organic Chemicals, Compat had upheld the CCI’s 9% penalty but reapplied it to “relevant turnover” (ie, turnover generated by aluminium phosphate tablets) rather than the total turnover of the companies as a whole.