COAI may move HC against monopoly watchdog

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said on Wednesday it was not ruling out moving high court against a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order against Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

The CCI’s order directs a probe into COAI’s role in reportedly anti-competitive agreements. The CCI order reviewed by this newspaper says that, in addition to incumbent telecom operators (as opposed to new player Reliance Jio), COAI’s conduct also needs to be examined. The CCI has ordered a probe against entities allegedly trying to restrict the entry of new player Reliance Jio.

COAI director-general (DG) Rajan S Mathews said, “First of all, the notice (relating to the order) has not been served on any of us. I need to put the caveat that the order is not out officially, so let’s just say it from what all you have been telling me. The accusation that the incumbent operators cartelised in their efforts to not provide points of interconnect and you did it as a cartel and COAI was the platform on which this information-sharing happened. So this is the allegation that was made to CCI.” When asked if COAI would appeal before a high court against the order, Mathews said it is an option for them. “It is an option, yes. Once we get the order and give that to the lawyers, they will advise us whether they believe an appeal at this stage in a high court is appropriate or not. If it is, then we will evaluate that; if not then the alternative is to go through the 60-day investigation. Our understanding is that, we strongly believe there will be nothing to indicate,” Mathews said.

The COAI D-G mentioned that in the past companies had approached high courts directly without waiting for the probe to finish.

“Because it can cause so much material damage to your reputation, it is appropriate for you to come to a high court and seek relief. So obviously the threshold is not low, it’s high,” he added.

Although CCI has taken majority view that there is a cartel of incumbent players like Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, and Idea Cellular, two of its members feel no such case.

The two members of CCI feel that new telecom player Reliance Jio is to blame and not the incumbents.