Competition Commission of India In Re: Cartelisation By Shipping Lines ... vs M/S Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. And ... on 20 January, 2022 PUBLIC VERSION COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA Suo Motu Case No. 10 of 2014 In Re: Cartelisation by Shipping Lines in the matter of provision of Maritime Motor Vehicle Transport Services to the Original Equipment Manufacturers Against: Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha NYK Line/ OP1 Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. KLine/ OP2 Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. MOL/ OP3 Nissan Motor Car Carrier Company NMCC/ OP4 CORAM Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta Chairperson Ms. Sangeeta Verma Member Mr. Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi Member Present: Mr. Ramji Srinivasan, Senior Advocate with Mr. Gurdev For Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Raj Bhatia, Mr. Abdullah Hussain and Mr. Rudresh Kaisha and its 14 individuals : Singh, Advocates Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Senior Advocate with Ms. Nisha For Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Kaur Uberoi, Ms. Radhika Seth, Mr. Mathew George and Ltd. and its 10 individuals : Mr. Sarthak Pande, Advocates Suo Motu Case No. 10 of 2014 Page 1 of 126 PUBLIC VERSION Mr. Amit Sibal, Senior Advocate with Ms. Shweta Shroff For Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. Chopra, Ms. Gauri Chhabra, Ms. Neetu Ahlawat and : and its 6 individuals Ms. Saumya Raizada, Advocates and Mr. Yuichi Hirano, Authorized Representative of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. For Nissan Motor Car Carrier Mr. Amit Sibal, Senior Advocate with Ms. Shweta Shroff Company and its 3 : Chopra, Ms. Gauri Chhabra, Ms. Neetu Ahlawat and individuals Ms. Ujwala Kishore Adikey, Advocates Order under Section 27 of the Competition Act, 2002 1. The present case pertains to alleged anticompetitive conduct by Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha ('NYK Line'/'OP1'), Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. ('K Line'/'OP2'), Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. ('MOL'/'OP3') and Nissan Motor Car Carrier Company ('NMCC'/'OP4'), in the provision of maritime motor vehicle transport services to automobile Original Equipment Manufacturers ('OEMs') for various trade routes, as noted hereinafter. I. Facts 2. The case was initiated by the Commission suo motu, on the basis of an application dated 01.10.2014 filed under the provisions of Section 46 of the Competition Act, 2002 (the 'Act') read with Regulation 5(1) of the Competition Commission of India (Lesser Penalty) Regulations, 2009 ('Lesser Penalty Regulations'), by NYK Line. It was mentioned in the application that NYK Line, KLine, MOL and NMCC (hereinafter the 'OPs') colluded in respect of providing maritime motor vehicle transport services to automobile OEMs viz. for certain specific trade routes, as mentioned below: Suo Motu Case No. 10 of 2014 Page 2 of 126 PUBLIC VERSION i. Collusion for contract In requested a quote for the trade route from from NYK Line, KLine and MOL. Consultations and discussions took place between NYK Line and KLine with respect to the freight rates that they would quote to . Further, in , issued a new tender for maritime motor vehicle transport services for its trade route from . In this tender also, NYK Line and KLine exchanged information with respect to quoted freight rates/positions/schedules, etc. In the bidrigging process, MOL was also complicit. ii. Collusion for contract NYK Line and KLine, inter alia, coordinated the sailing schedule to control the frequency of shipments per month, in response to the requests made by for . Further, in , discussions took place between these shipping lines regarding the request made by to decrease the Bunker Adjustment Factor ('BAF') for the ro