CCI rejects complaint against Maruti Suzuki

Competition Commission has rejected allegations of unfair business practices made against carmaker Maruti Suzuki India in a matter related to using services of GPS device-installed vehicles.
Finding no prima facie evidence of competition norm violations, the Commission decided to reject the complaint.
To ascertain whether the automaker has abused its dominant position, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) considered 'market for procurement of services of GPS device installed vehicle in India' as the relevant market.
The Commission noted that percentage of GPS devices installed vehicles used by Maruti Suzuki is negligible.
Prima facie Maruti Suzuki does not appear to be in a dominant position in the relevant market, it added.

"In the absence of dominance of the opposite party (Maruti Suzuki) in the relevant market, its conduct cannot be examined under the provisions of section 4 of the Act," the regulator said in an order dated May 28.

Competition Act's section 3 pertains to cartelisation while section 4 relates to abuse of dominant position.
The complaint was filed by Rooster Info Pvt Ltd, which is into manufacturing of Global Positioning System (GPS) that are used to track the location and other details of vehicles.
It was alleged that Maruti Suzuki decided to coerce transporters to install a GPS unit only from two companies.

Besides, the allegation was that the automaker had refused to provide the load to vehicles which did not have GPS from the two companies.
"The percentage of GPS device used by opposite party is only 1.52 per cent. Even if there is such an arrangement between opposite party and Trimble/ Efcon, the anti-competitive impact is negligible," the order noted.