Chairperson of Competition Commission of India Ravneet Kaur on Friday hinted that the competition watchdog is not likely to take cognizance of the media reports on US authorities indicting Gautam Adani on bribery charges to initiate an investigation into the matter, saying CCI can take action only after “some information” is filed before it.
“The CCI is governed by the Competition Act. It is meant to promote and sustain competition. If there is any matter which falls into that domain of the Competition Act, then it comes to the Competition Commission,” Kaur replied to media queries on whether the Adani matter falls under the purview of the Competition Commission of India.
US prosecutors have indicted billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani for paying $265 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts.
A five-count criminal indictment was filed at a federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Vneet Jaain and several others, for their role in a multi-billion dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.
Replying to a question on whether the allegations are in the nature of anti-competitive conduct, Kaur said, “I am not aware of that. These are all media reports and I am not able to respond to that.”
Kaur was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of an event organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Kolkata.
On whether the CCI would take cognizance of the media reports on the Adani matter, Kaur said, “No, we don’t take cognizance of the media reports. We have to have some information which is filed before us, and then the commission takes action on that.”
An Adani group spokesperson denied the US authorities allegations and claimed that it was baseless, and all legal recourse will be sought.
The Competition Commission of India has recently imposed a penalty of ₹213.14 crore on Meta for abusing its dominant position. The penalty pertains to the controversial implementation of WhatsApp’s 2021 Privacy Policy, which mandated data sharing between WhatsApp and other Meta companies, raising serious concerns about user autonomy and market fairness.
Referring to the WhatsApp case, Kaur said it was a “very important aspect” as there has been very rapid development of the landscape because of digital transformation. “So we have these big tech companies. Then, not only the big tech companies, even the industry is adopting more digital outreach, more practices which are based on AI and digital services. So in that kind of a landscape, it becomes even more important for us to understand what the competition law requires,” she emphasised.
Meta has said it would file an appeal challenging the decision of the CCI.