CCI slapped a penalty of 52.24 crore on BCCI for abuse of position

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 8 February 2013 was slapped a penalty of 52.24 crore rupees by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for being indulged in anti-competitive practices. The CCI ordered BCCI to deposit the penalty within 90 days from the date of issue of orders.

The CCI in its verdict claimed that BCCI abused its dominant position and directed it to cease its all practices of denying market access to the potential competitors. The regulator also stated that the stance of BCCI was of serious concern and quantum of penalty which should be levied that is proportional to the seriousness of violation.

A complaint was filed by Surinder Singh Barmi in November 2010 against BCCI and his allegations were based on issues related to a Professional League Tournament and Indian Premier League (IPL) conducted by the BCCI. The issues were related to irregularities in granting the rights of franchise of the team ownership and award of sponsorship rights as well as media rights of the league.  This complaint against BCCI was sent to the CCI’s Director General in December 2010 for hearing.

The CCI in its statement noted that BCCI have a huge economic power helped it in keeping away other competitors from the market by using its position as a de facto regulatory body, as a result of it many players which would have opted for other competitions were not successful in doing so. The BCCI had a strategy of monopoly over the market as a result of which it didn’t allow any other competitor to emerge in the market.

The Director General finally concluded that BCCI was a non-profit making organization and was registered as a society, but the activities performed by it like IPL earned it huge revenues and profits from the market via activities like grant of media rights, franchise rights, sponsorship rights and many more.