By Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s antitrust agency on Wednesday raided offices of tyre companies including Germany’s Continental AG and India’s Apollo Tyres and CEAT in a case of suspected competition law violations, four sources told Reuters.
Shares of Apollo, one of India’s biggest tyre makers, fell as much as 3% after Reuters first reported the raids, while CEAT dropped 2.2% in the Mumbai market, which was trading higher.
Shares in Continental, which is a relatively small player in India, fell about 3.5% in morning trade in Frankfurt.
Apollo did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while calls and messages to CEAT spokespeople went unanswered.
In a statement after the Reuters report was published, Continental confirmed that officers of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had visited its office near New Delhi.
“Continental is fully cooperating with the authorities,” it said.
The raids were being conducted by CCI officers across multiple cities, the sources said.
The CCI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency does not publicly disclose its raids.
One of the sources said the case was related to an antitrust investigation into the use of unfair trade practices and rigging of bids while supplying tyres for public transport vehicles in the northern state of Haryana.
Reuters reported in 2020 the CCI was conducting a broad investigation covering many tyre companies after it received a complaint from the Haryana state government. The CCI said at the time: “there appears to be some arrangement or understanding amongst the tyre manufacturers”. (https://reut.rs/3JQHvJe)
A finding of bid-rigging could lead to a fine of up to three times the profit in each year the prices were fixed by the companies, or 10% of annual revenue, whichever is more.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy in Mumbai and Sethuraman N R in Bengaluru; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)
