By Aditi Calra
New Delhi (Reuters), Indian antitrust body, found that global advertising agencies violated the laws by coordinating commissions that charge advertisers, which prompted a guard’s raid on advertising and media companies in March, according to a document that sheds a new light on investigating media sector.
The India Competition Commission made surprising raids in March in local AD agencies’ WPPM agencies at Groupm, Interpublic, Publicis and Dentsu and in the offices of Indian TV operators and the advertising companies Association.
A CCI document of February 7 and seen by Reuters on Friday sheds a new light on claims that three separate cartels have operated through three different industrial groups: Indian Advertisers Society (ISA), the Association of India’s Advertising Agencies (AAAI) and the Indian broadcast and Digital Foundation (IBD.
Prior to the raids, the CCI document reported, he reviewed evidence that shows that the alleged violation had been circulated since at least 2023, and advertising agencies exchanged trade sensitive information about WhatsApp groups and agreed to adhere to the pre -resolved commissions structures.
“Aaai and its members contradict the competition laws,” CCI noted in their original review while ordering the investigation, which caused the raids in March, the document said.
AAAI also often organizes virtual meetings among members to align the prices and answers to be shared with clients and discussed “response” against members who do not follow such guidelines, the document said.
The group “also fixes the formula for a fee -based fee -based service fee of advertisers,” CCI said.
The AAAI groups, which represents Group, Dentsu and Publicis, ISA, which counts dozens of Indian and foreign companies as members, and the IBDF group of radio and television operators did not respond to Reuters inquiries.
CCI also did not respond to a comment request.
CCI does not publicly reveal any details about prices investigations. Reuters announced in March that the allegations were linked to a secret agreement between media and television operators and the case was triggered after Dentsu made a federal programs such as signaling.
The raids cast a shadow on the fast -paced media and the broadcast sector in India, which counts Reliance Disney and Sony as a top players and can change how ads are appreciated and sold in the country.
Details of the allegations, the CCI document says that advertisers “have created the buyer’s cartel” while television operators providing channels separately engaged in “collective actions to refrain from giving discounts” to customers.