Competition Commission of India Builders Association Of India vs Cement Manufacturers' Association & ... on 20 June, 2012 Before The Competition Commission of India Case No. 29/2010 Date of Order: 20.06.2012 Builders Association of India through Shri O. P. Dua & Shri Rahui Goel Informant 1. Cement Manufacturers' Association through Shri Askok Desai & Others 2. Associated Cement Co. Ltd. through Shri K. Venugai and Ms. Pallavi Shroff 3. Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd. through Shri Ramji Srinivas & Ms. Anu Tiwari 4. Grasim Cement through Shri Aski Chinoy & Shri Pravin Parekh S. Hltratech Cement Ltd. through Shri Aski Chinoy & Shri Pravin Parekh 6. Jaypee Cement through Shri Parag Tripathi & Shri G. R. Bhatia 7. The India Cements Ltd. through Shri Harishankar 8. J.K Cements (JI< Group) through Shri P. K. Bhalla 9. Century Textiles & Industries Ltd.(Century Cement) Shri Pramod Agarwala & Others 10. Madras Cement Ltd. through Shri T. Srinivas Murthy 11. Binani Cement Ltd. through Shri Aditya Narain &Shri R. Sudhinder 12.Lafarge India Pvt. Ltd. through Shri A. Haskar &Shri Samir Gandhi Opposite Parties Order under Section 27 of the Com etition Act, 2002 The present matter relates to an information filed under section 19 of the Competition Act, 2002 (herein after referred to as the Act) on 26.07.2010 by Builders' Association of India (herein after referred to as the informant) against the Cement Manufacturers' Association (herein after referred to as the Opposite Party1 or OP1) and 11 other cement manufacturing companies (OP2 to 12) for alleged violation of the provisions of section ". : n ^ of the Act. Q o_ ( *E 4ry Q "F /NeN 2. The facts of the case, as per the information, in brief, are as under: 2.1 The informant, a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 is an association of builders and other entities involved in the business of construction. 2.2 The OP1 is an association of the cement manufacturers of India in which both public and private sector cement units are members. As per the informant, the total strength of the OP1 as on March 31, 2009, comprising of most of the big cement manufacturer stands at 46 in number. 2.3 The informant has submitted that cement manufacturers, namely, Associated Cement Co Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP2 or ACC), Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd. (herein after referred to as OP or ACL), Grasirn Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP4 or Grasim), Ultratech Cement Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP_5 or Ultratech), Jaypee Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP6 or .Jaypee), India Cements Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP7 or India Cements), i.K Cements of Group (herein after referred to as OP8 or .1K Cements),Century Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP9 or Century), Madras Cement Ltd (hereinafter referred to as OP10 or Madras Cement), Binani Cement Ltd (hereinafter referred to as OP ii or Binani) and Lafarge India PvL Ltd. (heiulnafter refered tu as 1' 0ornrni. L9) 2 \ 0 J OP12 or Lafarge) are also the members of UP 1 and are the leading manufacturers, distributors and sellers of cement in India. 2.4 As per the informant, the respondent cement manufacturers under the umbrella of OP1 indulge directly and indirectly into monopolistic and restrictive trade practices, in an effort to control the price of cement by limiting and restricting the production and supply of cement as against the available capacity of production. The cement manufacturers in connivance with the UP 1 have also been indulgn 'collusive price fixing'. They have divided the territory of India into five (5) zones so as to enable themselves to control the supply and determine or fix exorbitantly high price of cement by forming a cartel in contravention of provisions of section 3 of the Act. 2.5 Further, the OP2 to OP9, by virtue of the fact that they collectively hold more than 57.2.3% of market share in Ind