By Aditi Calra
New Delhi (Reuters), India’s balls, FedEx, UPS, Aramex and DHL leaders, are intended to be viewed in the coming weeks by a group of book publishers, which accused them of a price agreement, shows a new reversal in the antitrust probe that cleared the courier companies of improper action last year.
Allowing the applicant to question the companies is not common in the case of antitrust cases. This means that the final findings of the antitrust investigation can change and create new challenges for the courier specialties, and the case will be extended for several months, lawyers said about antitrust and state sources.
Many foreign and local companies are scourges for the Indian courier market and parcel delivery, which is expected to grow by 11% annually to $ 14.3 billion by 2030, supported by a boom in online shopping, says Mordor Intelligence.
In December, Reuters announced that the CCI Competition Commission (CCI) found “no evidence” for courier companies sharing commercial information with each other. The case of the cartel in 2022, the details of which remain confidential in accordance with the rules, is triggered when the Federation of Indian publishers alleges an agreement on prices and discounts from delivery companies.
The CCI has already merit in a complaint from the group of publishers, who claims to be allowed to examine the leaders of the delivery company, as investigators only rely on oral requests to make a pure chit.
The Federation “demonstrates a sufficient reason for establishing a need and expediency of such cross -examination”, CCI marked in an internal order on May 28, which was reviewed by Reuters.
The order states that the executives to be questioned are the Suns of Chakraborty, Managing Director of DTDC Express in India; RS Subramanian, Managing Director of DHL Express India; Suvendu Choudhury, Vice President of FedEx in India; Percy Avari, Aramex General Manager in India, and Abbas Panju, India, Managing Director of UPS Express.
None of the executives respond to requests for comment.
DHL said in a statement that it works in full compliance with all laws and “cooperates entirely with CCI”, but cannot comment on the specifics.
CCI, as well as other companies – DTDC based in the US FedEx and UPS, and Aramex of Dubai did not respond to Reuters Queries.
The Federation of Indian publishers also did not answer. It represents many Indian publishers as publications of S.chand and Rupa, as well as some foreign groups such as Pan Macmillan.
“Rare” cross -interrogation