Regulator CCI examining whether IndiGo violated competition norms: Official

Fair trade watchdog CCI is examining whether the country’s largest airline, IndiGo, violated competition norms, a senior official said on Friday amid the carrier facing regulatory scrutiny over significant flight disruptions.

IndiGo, which has a domestic market share of over 65 per cent, cancelled hundreds of flights starting from December 2, causing hardships to thousands of passengers, and the situation is stabilising now.

While aviation safety regulator DGCA is probing the flight disruptions apart from stepping up the scrutiny of IndiGo’s operations, there are concerns in certain quarters on whether the airline’s dominant position could also have been a contributing factor.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is internally examining whether IndiGo violated competition norms, the senior official told PTI.

According to the official, various aspects, such as the overall dominant position, dominance in particular routes, and whether there is abuse of dominance, will be looked into.

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There is no formal complaint against IndiGo so far, and the CCI is examining whether competition rules have been violated suo motu, the official added.

Section 4 of the Competition Act pertains to abuse of dominance that can be exploitative or exclusionary. Exploitative refers to acts such as excessive pricing, while denial of market access will fall under the exclusionary segment.

Under the norms, CCI first carries out a detailed examination of available information to reach a conclusion on whether there is prima facie evidence of competition norms violations.

Only when there is prima facie evidence of violations, then the regulator orders a probe into the matter.

An entity being dominant is not anti-competitive, but if there is an abuse of the dominance, then it violates competition norms.

Lack of proper planning in implementing the new set of flight duty norms from November 1 is being attributed as a key factor for the operational disruptions at IndiGo, apart from other factors.

CCI works to prevent anti-competitive practices in the marketplace as well as to promote fair business ways.

Among other powers, the regulator can penalise and issue cease-and-desist orders to clamp down on unfair business practices across sectors.