Fair trade regulator fines BCCI Rs 52 crore for abusing monopoly

[Ultimate_Game]

Finally someone came down on BCCI. I hope somebody steps in and forces out Srinivasan due to clear conflict of interest related to BCCI, IPL and India Cement. Link... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/Fair-trade-regulator-fines-BCCI-Rs-52-crore-for-abusing-monopoly/articleshow/18407585.cms

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) multi-million-dollar deals involving the Indian Premier League (IPL) during Lalit Modi's reign as the leading administrator, and its fierce move to stop the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL) from functioning, has invited the wrath of some government investigative agencies. Market watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has asked the national cricket board to stop denying access to potential competitors in the market, which is a result of the board going all out from 2007 to 2011 in its bid to wipe out the Zee-floated ICL. The fair trade regulator has also imposed a penalty of Rs 52.24 crore on the board for abuse of its dominant position, which led to the failure of ICL. The commission issued the orders after investigating a complaint filed by a Delhi-based cricket fan Surinder Singh Barmi. He had alleged irregularities in the grant of franchise rights for IPL team ownership, grant of media rights and award of sponsorship rights and other local contracts related to the T20 tournament. The CCI has directed BCCI to "cease and desist from any practice in future denying market access to potential competitors, including inclusion of similar clauses in any agreement in future". The BCCI was slapped with a $433m income tax notice last year, adding to the list of complexities that have been growing recently. The Enforcement Directorate had also recently fined IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals and its owners and directors for serious Fema violations. On the BCCI's functioning in handling IPL contracts, the CCI order said, "Virtually, there is no other competitor in the market nor was anyone allowed to emerge due to BCCI's strategy of monopolizing the entire market. The abuse was of a grave nature and the quantum of penalty that needs to be levied should be commensurate with the gravity of the violation." The penalty of Rs 52.24 crore is 6% of the average annual revenue of BCCI for the past three years. The commission has said that the amount must be deposited within 90 days from the date of receipt of the order. The CCI added that its probe found rigging attempts by former IPL commissioner Modi in tenders floated for franchises. However, CCI has said that the BCCI, as the parent body, cannot be absolved of its responsibility in the matter. The BCCI has also been charged with making out-of-turn changes in awarding IPL's broadcast rights and of using arm-twisting tactics to get its way. These findings were based on the contents of the show-cause notices issued by BCCI to Modi, the CCI said. The cricket board has always maintained that Modi had been acting outside of his authority in issuing various contracts but that stand has been rejected by the government's investigation agency which has concluded that decisions were taken with the consent and approval of the IPL governing council, comprising senior BCCI officials. "This was being reported to BCCI on regular basis and ratified by the governing council. Therefore, for all acts of commission and omission, BCCI cannot be absolved from its responsibility in the process of tendering," the order said.

[saket123]

BCCI and corruption?? NO WAYYY!!

[don_corleone840]

soo government trying its best to dismantle only decent sport body of india.

[Pagalpanti]

soo government trying its best to dismantle only decent sport body of india.

Just because other sports are in shambles doesn't mean we let BCCI go on with their corrupt ways

[G_B_]

looking at the way football and hockey are run in India give me the bcci any day of the week. Firstly, this is not corruption. Its an issue of muscling competitors which also happens in the corporate world. Indian fans especially need to understand what is said. When the bcci snuffed out the ICL it was not corruption. Its basically about maintaining a monopoly. Sometimes you get a feeling that Indian fans are just too thick to understand what is being said. Secondly, its a bit rich targeting the BCCI about this. Huge sectors in the Indian economy have a virtual government monopoly. There are very few sectors like telecoms in which there is no monopoly. Reliance for eg does have monopolies in vast areas of the petro chemical industry and they use their position to squeeze out rivals.

[Marut]

52 crore. Drop in the ocean.

[don_corleone840]

Sometimes it helps not to slice things too thin. Anti competitive business practices aren't any better than corruption. Both involve abuse of privileged position and trust. BCCI had no business denying these venues an additional source of income and ICL the opportunity to thrive.

soo u think there should be more leagues like ipl?

[Debutant]

Its not really corruption. BCCI invests money for players to develop. Young players will find it near to impossible to become world class players without BCCI's help. How can BCCI give its grounds and players to its competitor. They killed their competitor. Thats what a good businessman does.

[saket123]

Its not really corruption. BCCI invests money for players to develop. Young players will find it near to impossible to become world class players without BCCI's help. How can BCCI give its grounds and players to its competitor. They killed their competitor. Thats what a good businessman does.

I don't think you quite understand what abuse of power to monopolize market means..It's similar to what Microsoft used to do.. wherein it wouldn't let other non-microsoft competing products to even run on their Operating systems. (for which they were found guilty of and fined). Fair competition is when everybody does their best to sell what it is they are selling while sticking to the rules of free market system. ... Abuse of power to monopolize market, which I am sure the BCCI does, is to thwart deals made by the competition with common vendors under the threat of not doing business with the vendor.. Now stretch that over that multi million dollar Media rights that the BCCI sells thru IPL.. When BCCI threatens others to pull the contract out if they covered ICL.. obviously no one is gonna wanna cover ICL, which would then lead to it's eventual demise. It's quid-pro-quo galore.. which is rooted in corruption on all sides. this is why the BCCI was fined. Although, the fine is extremely small compared to the alleged abuse.

[Crookbond]

looking at the way football and hockey are run in India give me the bcci any day of the week. Firstly, this is not corruption. Its an issue of muscling competitors which also happens in the corporate world. Indian fans especially need to understand what is said. When the bcci snuffed out the ICL it was not corruption. Its basically about maintaining a monopoly. Sometimes you get a feeling that Indian fans are just too thick to understand what is being said. Secondly, its a bit rich targeting the BCCI about this. Huge sectors in the Indian economy have a virtual government monopoly. There are very few sectors like telecoms in which there is no monopoly. Reliance for eg does have monopolies in vast areas of the petro chemical industry and they use their position to squeeze out rivals.

A business is required to look after itself and grow. It isn't required to pull other businesses down to make a mark. There should always be level playing field for the market which no business despite of their position in the race can influence. This is like saying if in a 100m race, a runner is ahead at the 60m mark he should shoot others to ensure he crosses the 100m mark first. His job is to run fast and not slow down the others. Speaking of which I'm reminded of this (watch 1:35 onwards) - enjoy! :two_thumbs_up: cYplvwBvGA4

[Lord]

:hysterical:

[Zap_Brannigan]

I don't think you quite understand what abuse of power to monopolize market means..It's similar to what Microsoft used to do.. wherein it wouldn't let other non-microsoft competing products to even run on their Operating systems. (for which they were found guilty of and fined). Fair competition is when everybody does their best to sell what it is they are selling while sticking to the rules of free market system. ... Abuse of power to monopolize market, which I am sure the BCCI does, is to thwart deals made by the competition with common vendors under the threat of not doing business with the vendor.. Now stretch that over that multi million dollar Media rights that the BCCI sells thru IPL.. When BCCI threatens others to pull the contract out if they covered ICL.. obviously no one is gonna wanna cover ICL, which would then lead to it's eventual demise. It's quid-pro-quo galore.. which is rooted in corruption on all sides. this is why the BCCI was fined. Although, the fine is extremely small compared to the alleged abuse.

I am not sure what you are saying about MS actually happened. I remember MS was fined in EU for shipping with its own products such as the Internet explorer and not other companies product. That itself is an absurd decision since only MS is held for that standard while Apple and android get away with pulling the same practice in EU. Is it unfair? According to EU maybe but not according to the rest of the world. Back to BCCI practices, it maybe in a morally grey area but what they pulled wasn't illegal according to most since they are practiced all around the world. What they pulled on the players were essentially the same thing ECB did to Petersen i.e. they stopped/banned hiring players that went to ICL in any of its tournaments which happens to be every big domestic competition.

[saket123]

I am not sure what you are saying about MS actually happened. I remember MS was fined in EU for shipping with its own products such as the Internet explorer and not other companies product. That itself is an absurd decision since only MS is held for that standard while Apple and android get away with pulling the same practice in EU. Is it unfair? According to EU maybe but not according to the rest of the world. Back to BCCI practices, it maybe in a morally grey area but what they pulled wasn't illegal according to most since they are practiced all around the world. What they pulled on the players were essentially the same thing ECB did to Petersen i.e. they stopped/banned hiring players that went to ICL in any of its tournaments which happens to be every big domestic competition.

Microsoft actually manipulated it's APIs to NOT function properly with third party browsers. Microsoft's windows licensing also did not allow PC vendors to club in any other browsers as part of the new PC. The DOJ disagreed.. saying Microsoft had no right to preclude PC vendors from rolling in third party browsers and above all, manipulate APIs to not function with them. Anyways.. coming back to Cricket....Peterson's case is different in the sense.. his contract with ECB can legally prevent him from playing with other clubs. That is not detrimental to other clubs.. because Peterson is always free to show the middle finger to ECB and join elsewhere. That is no different from MRF Tires telling Tendulkar NOT to advertise any other tire manufacturers as long as he has a contract with MRF. You are right in that big companies always do this...some very subtly and some not so. The ones that get caught do deserve to be punished because they abuse their power to thwart competition. The right way would be when vendors themselves voluntarily choose BCCI over the competition without any threats or pressures from BCCI. If the competition dies then, there will no complaints..

[Mariyam]

A business is required to look after itself and grow. It isn't required to pull other businesses down to make a mark. There should always be level playing field for the market which no business despite of their position in the race can influence. This is like saying if in a 100m race, a runner is ahead at the 60m mark he should shoot others to ensure he crosses the 100m mark first. His job is to run fast and not slow down the others. Speaking of which I'm reminded of this (watch 1:35 onwards) - enjoy! :two_thumbs_up:

If only it were that straight forward. What constitutes a level playing field is a grey area and very debatable. If you were to join a major Consultancy (as an example), you would be made to sign, in addition to a non disclosure agreement, some documents which prohibit you from working for other competitors for 6 months to one year after you resign from the company. The higher your designation, the longer you wouldn't be allowed to work with direct competitors. Ditto with many banks. Probably with R&D departments of major FMCG companies too. BCCI, on the other hand, prevented players on their payroll, from playing in a 'rogue' league while they were on BCCI/ local cricket association payrolls. Of course, any such prohibitory order may have not been a part of their contract initially, that I don't know. If the latter goes against the statutes of the MRTP Act, why doesn't the former? Besides, the article posted in the OP seems to suggest that BCCI is distancing itself from the acts of its erstwhile president. :haha: Can that even be a tenable defense? Lets see how it works out.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Microsoft actually manipulated it's APIs to NOT function properly with third party browsers. Microsoft's windows licensing also did not allow PC vendors to club in any other browsers as part of the new PC. The DOJ disagreed.. saying Microsoft had no right to preclude PC vendors from rolling in third party browsers and above all, manipulate APIs to not function with them. Anyways.. coming back to Cricket....Peterson's case is different in the sense.. his contract with ECB can legally prevent him from playing with other clubs. That is not detrimental to other clubs.. because Peterson is always free to show the middle finger to ECB and join elsewhere. That is no different from MRF Tires telling Tendulkar NOT to advertise any other tire manufacturers as long as he has a contract with MRF. You are right in that big companies always do this...some very subtly and some not so. The ones that get caught do deserve to be punished because they abuse their power to thwart competition. The right way would be when vendors themselves voluntarily choose BCCI over the competition without any threats or pressures from BCCI. If the competition dies then, there will no complaints..

I wasnt aware that MS made the other browers work bad. Thats the first time i am hearing about it. Getting back to cricket, i dont understand how it is different to KP. KP had a contract with ECB while someone like Rayadu had a contract with Andhra cricket board, an affiliate of the BCCI. Its a given that there was stipulations against playing with competing board in both contracts. Rayadu, too was free to join any league that wasnt associated with the ICC, since he joined a league outside ICC. Since IPL is an ICC approved league, KP could still join a ICC approved league. So both cases are very similar. Its similar to sachin not being able to endorse cocacole while endorsing pepsi.