The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) today directed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to respond to a petition that accused the ministry of discriminative practices in awarding visa outsourcing services by various Indian embassies abroad.
The petition, filed by the Indian arm of international tour operator Cox & Kings and its subsidiary Quoprro Global Services Pvt Ltd, complained that Quoprro — the firm that undertakes visa service outsourcing — was denied market access due to the unfair, unreasonable and discriminatory tender conditions put forward by the embassies.
The matter came to Compat after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) did not find any prima facie violation of the Competition Act by the ministry.
Though the appeal was against the CCI decision, the petitioners wanted MEA to be party to the case.
The ministry had initiated the practice of outsourcing its visa services at its foreign embassies some six years ago. However, there was no “restrictive provision or condition” until Cox entered the fray through its wholly-owned subsidiary in 2008, the petitioner complains.
According to them, the ministry later introduced new conditions such as minimum number of years and the average application count handling experience, which resulted in Quoprro being denied a contract despite bidding successfully to manage the visa services of Indian embassy in Brussels.
Cox and Kings and Quoprro filed a case in CCI in August 2009, alleging the ministry to be misusing its monopoly status to impose “unfair and discriminatory condition in the purchase of services”. CCI dismissed the case in September 2010, saying that individual embassies were independent entities and the ministry was not the sole purchaser of visa services.
The company has appealed to set aside the CCI order.
Compat will hear the matter on March 10.
