CCI rejects complaint against Kanoria Chemicals

Competition Commission has dismissed allegations that Kanoria Chemicals & Industries abused its dominant position by imposing unfair prices for supply of an organic chemical Pentaerythritol.
Penta (Pentaerythritol) is a basic organic chemical used for a variety of purposes including in manufacturing of alkyd resin, rosin esters and printing inks.
For this case, Competition Commission of India (CCI) considered 'the market for sale of Penta in India', as the relevant one.
According to the watchdog, there are other firms in the relevant market supplying Penta.
Citing government data, CCI said in the total consumption of Penta in India during 2014-15, share of imports was 53.48 per cent while that of domestic producers stood at 46.52 per cent.

Rejecting the complaint, CCI said "no case is made out against OP (Kanoria) for contravention of any of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act".

Section 4 of the Competition Act pertains to abuse of dominant position.
Noting that market share is not the sole criterion for determining dominance, CCI said evidence of barriers that prevent other firms in the market from expanding their output or new firms from entering are also some of the factors to be examined in order to assess the dominance.
"... The Commission concludes that the contention of the informant that the opposite party has market power in the relevant market is not found to hold indicating that opposite party is not dominant in the said market," the order dated June 8 said.

Allegations regarding excessive pricing or restricting market access seem to be misconceived, CCI noted.