The Competition Commission of India has ordered a fresh probe against DLF alleging abuse of dominant position in development and sale of residential units in Gurgaon.
This comes just a day after it ordered a probe into similar complaints related to the ‘Regal Gardens at DLF Garden City’ project in Gurgaon.
The new order dated February 5, which the CCI put on its website on Tuesday, has asked its investigative arm to complete the probe within 60 days for alleged “abuse of dominant position in development and sale of residential units in Gurgaon” for the Skycourt residential project of DLF Universal Ltd.
“At the outset it may be noted that the Commission has already received many information where the opposite party (DLF Universal Ltd) has been prima facie found to be dominant in market for ‘provision of services for development of residential apartments in the territory of Gurgaon,” the watchdog said.
The order further stated that the issues raised in this case are also of the same nature where the informant is aggrieved by the conduct of the opposite party, which is alleged to be one-sided and discriminatory, resulting in the abuse of dominant position.
“It may be mentioned here that the Commission has already held the opposite party to be dominant in the above mentioned relevant market. Although such cases were before the Commission for the agreements which were entered into between 2007 and 2010, in the absence of any material pointing to the contrary, the Commission is of the view that vis-a-vis the opposite party, the market dynamics have not changed much and the opposite party still holds a dominant position in the relevant market defined above,” CCI added.
The Commission had earlier slapped a Rs 630-crore penalty on the realty firm for violating fair trade norms in 2011. The penalty was challenged by DLF before the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which upheld the CCI order and the company approached the Supreme Court.