The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of ₹9.72 lakh on Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) and others for indulging in anti-competitive conduct by impeding entry and screening of dubbed movies in the State.

The case was filed by the film producer G Krishnamurthy against organisations KFCC and Kannada Okkuta, and individuals Vatal Nagraj, Jaggesh and Sa Ra Govindu, President of KFCC.

Campaign against film

Krishnamurthy acquired the dubbing rights for the Tamil movie Yennai Arindhal and dubbed it Sathyadev IPS for release in Karnataka. Krishnamurthy alleged that right from the beginning, the organisations and individuals had threatened his technical workers and dubbing artists.

Prior to the release of the movie, they started a social media campaign and threatened the cinemas hall owners to prevent the screening of the movie. Even after the aborted release of Sathyadev IPS , the protest did not stop, he said in his petition.

The Commission in its order on Thursday said, “Such anti-competitive practice was found to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition and adversely affected the consumers, producers and exhibitors of dubbed cinema in Karnataka and resulted in limiting and restricting the market for dubbed cinemas there.”

Repeat offender

The Commission also found that KFCC had violated the provisions of the Competition Act on earlier occasions too and had been penalised. As a result, the Commission, besides passing cease and desist orders, also directed KFCC to bring in place a Competition Compliance Manual to educate its members about the basic tenets of competition law principles.

A penalty of ₹9.72 lakh, ₹15,121 and ₹2.71 lakh was imposed on KFCC, Govindu and Jaggesh, respectively, calculated at 10 per cent of their average income. Since Kannada Okkuta and Vatal Nagraj had failed to furnish their financial details despite sufficient opportunities, the Commission decided that a separate order regarding penalty would be passed in due course.

 

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