Appeal No. 27 Of 2016, (Under Section 53B of the Competition Act, 2002 against the order dated 07.01.2016 passed by the Competition Commission of India in Case No.86/2015). Case: Vimal Singh Rajput Vs Competition Commission of India and Ors.. COMPAT (Competition Appellate Tribunal)
| Case Number | Appeal No. 27 Of 2016, (Under Section 53B of the Competition Act, 2002 against the order dated 07.01.2016 passed by the Competition Commission of India in Case No.86/2015) |
| Counsel | Shri Pradeep Agarwal, Shri Kaushal Kumar Sharma and Shri Tanveer Verma, Advocates for the Appellant. |
| Judges | Shri Justice G.S. Singhvi, Chairman and Shri Rajeev Kher, Member and Ms. Anita Kapur, Member |
| Issue | Competition Act, 2002 - Section 19(1)(a) |
| Judgement Date | May 25, 2016 |
| Court | COMPAT (Competition Appellate Tribunal) |
Order:
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Having failed to convince the Competition Commission of India (Respondent No.1 herein) to entertain the information filed by him under Section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 (for short, ''the Act'') against the alleged abuse of dominant position by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Respondent No.2 herein) in the matter of engaging only those ''Car Carrier Trucks'' (CCTs), fitted with Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) manufactured either by Trimble Trako or Efkon, appellant -- Vimal Singh Rajput, who claims to be earning his livelihood by driving a commercial vehicle (Maruti Van) in Delhi and National Capital Region and is also the President of Economy Radio Taxi Drivers Association, Delhi has filed this appeal under Section 53A of the Act.
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In the information filed by him through his counsel, the appellant made the following averments/ allegations:
1.2.1.1 Like all the car manufacturers, cars manufactured by OP are transported from the production units of OP to the dealers, situated all over India, through contracted third party private ''car carrier trucks''. Such a mode of transport greatly reduces the probability of damage to cars during transport and has become a norm in the industry.
1.2.1.2 These car carrier trucks are costly and their trailers are specifically designed to carry cars and can only transport cars and nothing else. They are specially designed having carrier chassis of specified size to accommodate cars, ramps, hydraulic pumps, etc. They are designed in such a manner which would reduce the movement of car cargo during transport to a minimum thus reducing the risk of damage to cars.
They are generally double dickered for carrying larger number of cars.
1.2.1.3 As per articles published in Automotive Logistics (dated 06.02.2015) (Annex. B at page No.54, Vol.II) and Motorindia (dated 04.07.2011) (Annex. C at page No.58, Vol. II), there are approximately 12,000 car carrier trucks in India.
1.2.1.4 They may either be 18 m long or 22 m long and may carry 8 to 10 small cars or 6 to 8 large cars (such as SUVs). Because of their single purpose utility of only being capable of carrying cars, their owners are completely dependent on car manufacturers like OP for procuring business as these car carrier trucks can do nothing else.
1.2.2.1 As cars are expensive, car manufacturers including OP track the location of the car carrier trucks through a VTS device which has been installed on the car carriers truck. VTS devices use Global Positioning System ("GPS") technology for such tracking. The mechanism behind GPS tracking of car carrier truck through a VTS device and the difference between tracking through VTS device and normal GPS tracking used in cars for path guidance has been explained in layman''s language in Annex. D. In brief, the main difference is that, in tracking through VTS device, the VTS device sends the location of the vehicle to a remote server through GSM mobile telephony. On the other hand, in normal GPS tracking the data generated by the GPS device installed on the vehicle is displayed on the screen located in the vehicle itself.
1.2.2.2 VTS devices are supplied by VTS manufacturers and a car carrier truck owner is free to enter into contract for supply and maintenance of VTS device with any VTS manufacturer of his choice. The car carrier truck owner generally makes all the payments directly to the VTS manufacturer without any intervention, from the car manufacturer.
1.2.2.3 Car carrier truck owner or anybody authorized by him/her can directly view the tracking information of the car carrier truck by logging into the website of the VTS manufacturer by entering a username and password supplied by the VTS manufacturer. Car carrier truck owners may share the username and password with car manufacturers to enable them to view the tracking information.
Copies of login pages of a number of VTS manufacturers have been enclosed as Annex.E Colly. at page no.66 vol.II.
1.2.2.4 In cases where the car manufacturers have contracted many car carrier trucks installed with different brands of VTS devices, the car manufacturers can and have developed softwares which can integrate the data from VTS devices of different brands for easy viewing by the car manufacturer. Therefore, a car manufacturer need not visit multiple websites of various VTS manufacturers in such a case of integration. Car manufacturers provide the technical information related to such softwares to VTS device manufacturers so that they may develop complementary softwares at their own end.
1.2.2.5 Such a practice (of developing and employing softwares which could collate and integrate the tracking data from various VTS devices of different brands) has become a standard not only in the field of car transportation but in the field of bulk transportation in general.
Even large transport companies, like OM Logistics, have contracted with more than half a dozen VTS manufacturers and have developed similar softwares which automatically collects, collates and integrates the data from devices of different VTS manufacturers.
1.2.2.6 It must be noted that the development and implementation of such softwares is an inexpensive and quick process and could be carried out in a time span of about one week and a cost of...
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