JSA Advocates & Solicitors (JSA) secured a major relief for Axis Trustee, IDBI Trusteeand Industry Association TAI before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in a cartel case. Despite recording findings of contravention, the CCI decided not to impose any monetary penalty whatsoever on the debenture trustees (DTs) or their relevant individuals.
The case arose from a complaint filed by Muthoot Finance Limited, inter alia alleging that DTs, under the aegis of TAI, had collectively fixed a minimum fee structure to be charged from issuers for providing debenture trusteeship services, in contravention of Section 3(3) of the Competition Act, 2002, as amended (Competition Act).
JSA represented the parties throughout the proceedings before the Director General, CCI and the Bombay High Court, and made extensive submissions on the merits of the case as well as on the factors warranting no imposition of monetary penalties.
While recording findings of contravention, the CCI accepted the submissions on mitigating factors and decided not to impose any monetary penalty on the parties. The outcome is particularly significant in the context of a cartel matter, given that the CCI has, in very few cases, decided not to impose a monetary penalty despite recording a finding of contravention.
Senior Advocates Mr. Vaibhav Gaggar and Mr. Samar Bansal, instructed by JSA, led the arguments before the CCI and were assisted by the JSA team.
The JSA Competition team was led by Vaibhav Choukse, Partner, with support from Ela Bali, Partner; Aditi Khanna, Principal Associate; Faiz Siddiqui, Senior Associate; Yaatri Shah, Associate; Priyanshi Jain, Associate, and Aarathi R Menon, Associate.
Ela is a partner with JSA’s competition law practice with 10 years of experience. She represents and advises clients across different sectors on enforcement and merger control matters before the Competition Commission of India (CCI), National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Delhi and Bombay High Court, and the Supreme Court of India (SC).