The present matter relates to an information filed under section 19 of the Competition Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) on 26.07.2010 by Builders' Association of India (hereinafter referred to as the informant) against the Cement Manufacturers' Association (hereinafter referred to as the Opposite Party-1 or OP-1) and 11 other cement manufacturing companies (OP 2 to 12) for alleged violation of the provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the Act.

2. The facts of the case, as per the information, in brief, are as under:

2.1 The informant, a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 is an association of builders and other entities involved in the business of construction.

2.2 The OP-1 is an association of the cement manufacturers of India in which both public and private sector cement units are members. As per the informant, the total strength of the OP-1 as on March 31, 2009, comprising of most of the big cement manufacturer stands at 46 in number,

2.3 The informant has submitted that cement manufacturers, namely, Associated Cement Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP-2 or ACC), Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd. (herein after referred to as OP-3 or ACL), Grasim Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP-4 or Grasim), Ultratech Cement Ltd, (hereinafter referred to as OP-5 or Uitratech), Jaypee Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP-6 or Jaypee), India Cements Ltd, (hereinafter referred to as OP-7 or India Cements), J.K Cements of Group (herein after referred to as OP-8 or JK Cements), Century Cement (hereinafter referred to as OP-9 or Century), Madras Cement Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP-10 or Madras Cement), Binani Cement Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP- 11 or Binani) and Lafarge India Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as OP-12 or Lafarge) are also the members of OP-1 and are the leading manufacturers, distributors and sellers of cement in India.

2.4 As per the informant, the respondent cement manufacturers under the umbrella of OP-1 indulge directly and indirectly into monopolistic and restrictive trade practices, in an effort to control the price of cement by limiting and restricting the production and supply of cement as against the available capacity of production. The cement manufacturers in connivance with the OP-1 have also been indulging in 'collusive price fixing'. They have divided the territory of India into five (5) zones so as to enable themselves to control the supply and determine or fix exorbitantly high price of cement by forming a cartel in contravention of provisions of section 3 of the Act.

2.5 Further, the OP-2 to OP-9, by virtue of the fact that they collectively hold more than 57.23% of market share in India, enjoy a position of dominance and arbitrarily increase the price of cement. As per the informant, the acts of these cement manufacturers, under the aegis of the OP-1, tantamount to abuse of dominance under section 4 of the Act.

2.6 The informant has further submitted that the OP-2 and OP-3 are the leading cement manufacturers having approximately 21% market share in India. It has been alleged that although with effect from November 1, 2009, OP-2 and 3 are no longer the members of the OP-1, resignation from its membership is only to keep their activities of cartelization under a veil since they are still actively participating in the "benchmarking exercise" of OP-1. As per the informant, despite having resigned from the membership, OP-2 and 3 have been successful in keeping their prices per bag similar to the prices per bag of other cement manufacturers who continue to be members of the OP-1. The informant has also alleged that the reasons stated by OP-2 and 3 for discontinuing their association from the OP-1 is an admission of cartelization amongst the dominant players as is evident from the following portion of news release:-

"There is widespread feeling in the industry that CMA indulges in cartelization and holds up cement prices artificially high. Halcim feels that being a