Public Sector Insurers Penalised For Participating In Cartel

Article by MM Sharma, Head Competition Law & Policy Practice, Vaish Associates, Advocates, New Delhi, India

Introduction

By an order dated July 10 2015¹ the Competition Commission penalised four public sector insurers (ie, National Insurance Co Ltd, New India Assurance Co Ltd, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd and United India Insurance Co Ltd) for participating in a cartel and bid rigging tenders held by the Kerala government. They were fined Rs1.6 billion, Rs2.5 billion, Rs1 billion, and Rs1.6 billion respectively, representing 2% of their average turnover for the previous three financial years. This is the second time that the commission has penalised public sector undertakings.²