Debangana Ray
Published on June 25, 2022 at 00:04 IST
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an investigation against Bookmyshow for alleged unfair competition practices and has sought for a report from the Director General (DG) of the investigation within 60 days.
The three-member bench headed by chairperson, Ashok Kumar Gupta and members Sangeeta Verma and Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi has noted that there exists a prima facie case regarding the conduct of Bookmyshow which requires an investigation by the Director General.
This will be done in order to determine whether the conduct of Bookmyshow has resulted in a contravention of the provisions of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.
The informant has contended that BookmyShow collects 25 rs per ticket as convenience fee from online customers and shares 50 percent of the fee with the multiplexes. On the other hand, it only pays upto 6-8 rs per ticket in case of standalone theatres.
On the other hand, Showtyme, belonging to the informant, offered 5 rs to the multiplexes out of 11 rs. Despite this, multiplexes and single theatres are unable to associate with Showtyme because Bookmyshow provides them with cash loans and monetary deposits on zero interest in order to kill competition.
Further, Bookmyshow has allegedly signed “exclusive and refused to deal” agreements with multiple multiplexes. Owing to the agreements, apart from charging extremely expensive fees, the mutiplexes sell tickets through Bookmyshow only.
They have also signed “refused to deal” agreements of 2-5 years where they do not sell movie tickets with any other platform other than Bookmyshow. This shows that Bookmyshow has a malicious intent to kill its competition and charge exorbitant fees.
Bookmyshow denied the allegations and stated that it is volatile in nature. Various participants have been able to enter and have created a significant presence in the market.
The CCI observed that, prima facie, the informant appears to substantiate the dominant position enjoyed by Bookmyshow in the relevant market of online intermediation services for booking movie tickets.