CCI rejects abuse of dominant position charges against Nissan

March 25, 2014 04:10 pm | Updated May 19, 2016 11:23 am IST - New Delhi

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed allegations about abuse of the dominant market position in sales and services by auto-maker Nissan Motors India in Ludhiana.

The CCI order, released on Tuesday, says that prima facie there is “no competition concern actionable under...the (Competition) Act.” It also says that based on the data available with it, Nissan Motors cannot be said to have a dominant position in India and, therefore, the “question of abuse of dominance would not arise.”

The complainant in the case is Tristar Trading, an erstwhile dealer of Nissan Motors. It had filed the complaint against the auto maker, its service partner Hover Automative India and its authorised dealer Dada Motors for Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

The allegation was that Nissan Motors and Hover, in collusion with Dada Motors, were trying to “preserve, increase and consolidate the dominant power” of Dada Motors in Ludhiana leading to distortions in competition.

Tristar Trading had also alleged in its compliant that Nissan had terminated its dealership agreement for no reason. It said that this agreement contained certain abusive clauses.

The order, however, says that Nissan terminated the dealership agreement on receiving complaints from customers that Tristar Trading had not remitted to it the advance it had collected from them for car deliveries. “The issue between the car manufacturer and its erstwhile dealer arising out of termination of the dealer agreement appears to be a commercial and contractual dispute and does not raise any competition concern,” the order says.

According to Tristar Tradings submissions before the CCI, it contended that during construction of its showroom, Nissan barred had barred it from selling the then-latest (2010) models of Teana and X-trail cars and were allowed to sell only older models. At the same time, it alleged, that Nissan had allowed Dada Motors to sell these cars from a showroom with incomplete facilities workshop. It also cited another similar instance of another dealer in Chandigarh.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.