J M C C C 2019

Dates: 29th to 31st March, 2019

Venue: O.P. Jindal Global University
Email: jindalmoot@jgu.edu.in
 JINDAL MOOT 2019: MOOT PROPOSITION

1. Indrahaar is a republic in South Asia, whose laws are pari materia with the laws of India,
with the limited exceptions laid out in this Proposition. Indrahaar enacted its competition
law, the Competition Act of Indrahaar (“Competition Act”), in 2002. However, the
Competition Act was brought into force in a phased manner, with the last provisions
coming into force only in June, 2011.

2. The Competition Commission of Indrahaar (“CCI”) treats decisions of the Competition

Commission of India as well as other authorities as having high persuasive value. The CCI
also regards the competition regulators of the European Union and the United States of
America highly, and relies on established precedent from these jurisdictions as well. The
CCI has been established under the aegis of the Competition Act, and is governed by it, as
well as by associated regulations, notifications, and amendments published in the Gazette
of Indrahaar from time to time.

3. Rhine Valley Corporation (“Rhine Valley”) is a fully integrated electronic commerce (“e-
commerce”) player, that was founded by Mr. Leon Chef in 1999 in the Republic of
Frankburg on the European continent, which is also a member state of the European Union.
On witnessing the rapid expansion of the internet, Mr. Chef had sensed ripe business
opportunities for Rhine Valley to meet future demand for web based delivery services.
Often referred to as a ‘tech giant’, Rhine Valley’s website, ‘rhinevalley.com’ has become
an online market place (“OMP”) for third party retailers, who can avail of its OMP services
and display their merchandise on an ‘online bazaar’ for prospective customers to view and
purchase. Rhine Valley offers a streamlined distribution and delivery service of its own, in
relation to the merchandise sold on its website – this service ensures a smooth and reliable
system of pick-up from the retailer and delivery at the customer’s doorstep. In 2009, Rhine
Valley opened its own in-house manufacturing facilities, for producing merchandise under
its in-house ‘RhineBasix’ brand. As a result, many RhineBasix products often compete with
those of third party retailers on Rhine Valley’s website.

4. As of December 2018, Rhine Valley is the largest internet retailer in the world (in terms of
revenue and total sales). Although the rhinevalley.com website started as an online
bookstore, it has since diversified to sell other merchandise such as software, video games,

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 electronics, apparel, furniture, health care products, food, and toys. Rhine Valley is a public
company listed on both the Frankburg Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock
Exchange of Indrahaar. In 2019, Rhine Valley had a market share of 45% in the market for
OMPs in Indrahaar.

5. Rhine Valley has 49% shareholding in its associate company, Rhine Valley Vault Services
(“RVV”) which owns servers that run databanks, which in turn maintain the cloud
infrastructure services of many multinational technology companies. 51% of RVV's shares
are held by Leon Chef who is presently the CEO of RVV, in addition to being the MD of
Rhine Valley. He had setup RVV along with Rhine Valley in 1999 in Frankburg with the
objective of maintaining an online databank of customers’ addresses and contact numbers.
Aware of the potential expansion of the internet, Mr. Chef quickly realised that it would be
impossible to manually feed such customer information into RVV’s database on a
continuous basis, and a technological solution would need to be developed. Along with a
team of computer engineers and data scientists, Mr. Chef developed a computer-
implemented technology that operated on the basis of an algorithm jointly created by the
team. The technology consisted of (1) a computing platform, and (2) an algorithm – which
was dynamic in nature, and could be fed information on a continuous basis so as to create
a constantly expanding framework for holding data and information. In 2013, RVV secured
patent protection over this computer-implemented technology in Frankburg. RVV’s
headquarters are in Frabkburg, and it only has sales offices in other jurisdictions, including
Indrahaar.

6. Over the course of the last 6 years, RVV has become one of the world's largest providers
of cloud infrastructure services, by making its services available to meet the requirements
of 15 different companies which rely on cloud computing technology for their operations.
While RVV provides the infrastructure services, these other companies feed their own
information into the databank – this information can vary from individual search history
and personal preferences to location tracking information. RVV’s databank has now
become a comprehensive ledger containing the contact details, bank account details, travel
records, search history, personal preferences, and is effectively able to create a virtual
profile of any person who uses the services of Rhine Valley or other companies that feed
information into RVV. This information is kept highly confidential, and is available only
to those companies which contribute to the database. There is no regulatory control over

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 these activities due to the absence of any relevant legislation on data collection in any
jurisdiction.

7. Swadeshi Technology Pvt. Ltd. (“SwadeshiTech”) is another e-commerce player founded

in Indrahaar in 2015, which offers OMP services to customers in Indrahaar. SwadeshiTech
is the product of the Startup Indrahaar initiative of the Government of Indrahaar, as part of
the Government’s strategy to grow and promote domestic technology companies, and has
thus received funding from the Government’s Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotion. As of 2018, SwadeshiTech had a market share of 35% in the market of OMPs
in Indrahaar, with Rhine Valley being its main competition.

8. SwadeshiTech, unlike Rhine Valley, does not have a fully integrated technology system,
and while it has a much more reliable delivery system in Indrahaar than Rhine Valley, it
does not have its own databank of customer’s contact details. Accordingly, in December
2017, SwadeshiTech approached Mr. Chef for access to “any and all customer information
available on RVV’s databank” on a contractual basis. Mr. Chef agreed to provide
SwadeshiTech access to RVV’s customer contact data on a monthly basis at the rate of
USD 50,000 per month, with the condition that RVV is at liberty to revise the rate at its
own discretion. Despite having studied the rhinevalley.com website in detail, at the time in
December 2017, SwadeshiTech was only aware of RVV having the contact details of all
its customers due to the confidential nature of the full capabilities of RVV’s cloud
infrastructure services. In addition, Mr. Chef had ensured that the language of the contract
between RVV and SwadeshiTech expressly stated that “RVV agrees to provide
SwadeshiTech with all relevant contact details of its customers as available in its databank
including, but not limited to, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and physical delivery
addresses”.

9. In March 2018, Rhine Valley and RVV fall under regulatory scrutiny when the Director
General of Competition of the European Commission (“DG Competition”) conducts a
dawn raid at the offices of Rhine Valley and RVV, for an unrelated price-fixing issue of
mobile tablets and reading devices. The DG Competition issues a press release after such
raid that it had conducted the raid on an allegation of RVV acting as a hub for cartel activity
amongst Rhine Valley and the other multinational technology companies in the mobile
tablet market. The press release listed the names of these other companies, as well as the
nature of the customer information that was shared by them, and stored in RVV’s databank.

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 Accordingly, SwadeshiTech learns that RVV had other information regarding customers
such as search history and personal preferences.

10. In August 2018, SwadeshiTech approached the CCI complaining that Rhine Valley,
through RVV, had violated provisions of the Competition Act. Specifically, it was
complained that Rhine Valley and RVV were guilty of (i) “refusal to deal” with
SwadeshiTech, (ii) had an “exclusive supply and distribution agreement” between Rhine
Valley and RVV, as well as with the other technology companies, (iii) had denied access
to RVV’s databank, and (iv) had leveraged RVV’s position in the market of cloud
infrastructure services to consolidate its position in the market for OMPs in Indrahaar. In
addition, SwadeshiTech complains that RVV should license out its technology on a
compulsory basis, and that the protection accorded under Section 3 of the Competition Act
will not be applicable in this case.

11. Contemporaneously, the Centre for Netizens of Indrahaar (“CNI”) approached CCI against
RVV for abusing its dominant position by restricting access to its databank to all internet
citizens, so they are aware of the extent of their personal details recorded in RVV’s
databank. CNI also alleges that violation of data privacy by RVV.

12. In response to these complaints, Rhine Valley and RVV contended that (i) the confidential
nature of the information of the information amounts to a reasonable restriction under
Section 3 of the Competition Act, (ii) the information in the databank is not a good or
service under the ambit of the Competition Act, but is a result of patented technology –
accordingly, the CCI does not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter, (iii) assuming that
the CCI has the jurisdiction to hear the matter, there is no compulsory license which has
been granted by any patent authority in the world in relation to RVV’s technology, and (iv)
privacy and data security related concerns are not regulated under the Competition Act and
there is no legislation in place in Indrahaar governing the same.

13. On 10 January 2019, the CCI passed its order confirming its jurisdiction in the matter, and
finds in favour of Rhine Valleys and RVV. Aggrieved, SwadeshiTech and CNI appealed
to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”). On 10 March 2019, the
NCLAT confirmed CCI’s jurisdiction over the matter, but held that the CCI erred in
interpreting the scope of the Competition Act narrowly, and that the principles enshrined
under the Competition Act are painted with a broad brush, and should be read widely

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 enough to include products, service, as well as information which are in relation to such
products and services. Accordingly, consumer protection is one of the areas which fall
under the scope of the CCI, and within this ambit, the CCI is expected to regulate dominant
enterprises that are taking advantage of their position to use customer data to the detriment
of the competitors of such enterprises.

14. Aggrieved, Rhine Valley, RVV, and the CCI approached the Supreme Court of Indrahaar
(“Supreme Court”) to decide on the merits of the matter. In addition, CNI files a cross-
appeal to the Supreme Court for deliberation on the privacy and data security related
concerns of the citizens of Indrahaar. The Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeals
together, and will now hear all arguments, including the issues and contentions raised
before the CCI and the NCLAT.

NOTE:
Lawyers representing both sides are required to address the arguments that are specifically
mentioned in the Proposition. They are, however, free to make any other arguments that
they deem fit. Lawyers for both sides are encouraged to explore additional arguments
related to jurisdiction as well as merits.

Counsels for the Appellants will argue for Rhine Valley, RVV, and the CCI, while counsel
for the Respondents will argue for SwadeshiTech and CNI.