MOTION PICTURES ASSOCIATION Vs. RELIANCE BIG ENTERTAINMENT PVT. LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will govern Appeal Nos. 69, 70, 71, 73, 96, 97, 102, 78, 66, 67 of 2012. All these appeals were disposed of by the Competition Commission of India ("CCI" hereinafter) by a common order. All the appellants, therefore, have come up by way of the present appeals under Section 53 -B of the Competition Act, 202 (in short the "Act"). By the impugned order, the CCI found all the appellants guilty of the contravention of Section 3(3)(b) read with Section 3(1) of the Act and various penalties were inflicted against all the appellants. Initially on the basis of the information led before it by Reliance Big Entertainment P. Ltd., Case No. 25 of 2010 was registered before the CCI against the 12 parties in all. So also the information was led before the CCI by UTV Software Communication Ltd., in Case No. 41 of 2010. Similarly along -with these cases, Case Nos. 45, 47, 48, 50, 58 and 69 of 2010 were also registered on behalf of the information led before the CCI. All these cases were disposed of by the CCI, by the impugned order, holding the opposite parties in those cases guilty of the contraventions as have been stated above. All these cases were consolidated by the CCI as the basic issue raised by the Informants were common and identical. Basically, it was stated in the information led before the CCI that the appellants were the representative bodies of the distributors and exhibitors of the cinema -films and they had involved in various anti -competitive activities in violation of the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Act generally. In particular, it was stated that by their rules, these Associations were compelling the producers and distributors of cinema -films to compulsorily register their films with them, forcing them to abide by their unfair and discriminatory rules. It was stated that these Associations directed their members not to deal with non -members as also putting restrictions such as limiting of number of cinema theatres for exhibition of films. They were also practicing discrimination between non -regional films against regional films. They were also imposing undue long hold back period for exploitation of satellite, video, DTH and other rights in respect of the exhibition of the film. They were also imposing bans, penalties and giving call of boycott against those, who violated these unreasonable rules and regulations of the Associations. After the information was received, the CCI got the same investigated by the Director General (in short the "DG"), who after investigation firstly recommended that the appellants' Association could not be said to be an "enterprise" within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the Act, nor did they constitute a "group" within the meaning of Section 4 read with Section 5 of the Act and as such, they could not be held guilty for contravention of Section 4. The DG, however, held that the appellants were guilty of the contravention of Section 3(3)(b) of the Act. The DG found number of contraventions of individual nature against the appellants and held them guilty of violating of provisions of Section 3(1), 3(3)(b) and 3(4) of the Act on account of the bylaws, rules and regulations and the activities. In his report, the DG has neatly listed the individual contraventions by each of the appellants.

(2.) THE DG's report was served on the appellants, who filed their objections before the CCI. They were heard individually by the CCI. The CCI framed four issues, they were as under: -

(3.) IN fact, the majority passed two orders one covering Case Nos. 25, 41, 45, 47, 48, 50, 58 and 69 of 2010 and other covering Case Nos. 52 and 56 taking the same view.