Question: A Ltd. is a cement manufacturing company in India.

It approached
CCI under Section 46 read with Rule 5 of the CCI (Lesser Penalty) Regulations
stating that from 2011 – Feb 2015, A Ltd. had an agreement with B Ltd (another
cement company) for the sale of cement. Under this agreement A Ltd. used to
supply cement to B Ltd. as part of its institutional sales. A Ltd. had another
agreement with C Ltd. and D Ltd. through which they coordinated the sales
price of cement. Therefore, since A Ltd. has beforehand knowledge of the time
of price increase, it used the same to negotiate and increase the price of cement
sold by it to B Ltd. Further both A Ltd. and B Ltd. used to agree on the market
price of cement sold by them so as to maintain parity in the market.
Based on the above, you are required to answer the following –
a. Whether, the agreement between A Ltd. and B Ltd. can be termed as Anti –
Competitive? If yes, why?
b. Whether A Ltd. is eligible for the benefits under Lesser Penalty provisions? If
yes, what are the benefits?
c. Mention case laws to support your answer to the questions.
.