Order under Section 27 of the Competition Act, 2002

1. The present information has been filed by M/s HT Media Limited ('the informant') under section 19(1) (a) of the Competition Act, 2002 ('the Act') against M/s Super Cassettes Industries Limited ('the opposite party') alleging inter alia contravention of the provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the Act.

Facts

2. Factual matrix, as unfolded in the information, may be briefly noted.

3. The informant claims to be one of the leading media companies in India. As per the informant, apart from being engaged in the business of print media under the aegis of 'Hindustan Times', it has diversified its ambit into electronic media and has launched an FM radio channel called Fever 104, which is currently operational in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. It is stated that Fever 104 largely plays Bollywood film music and since its coming into operation in Delhi (October 2006), Mumbai (January 2007) and Kolkata (January 2008), it has developed a strong listenership in these metros.

4. It is averred that the opposite party, known under the brand name of T-Series, was founded by the late Shri Gulshan Kumar and is engaged in manufacture, production and publication of music and videos in India and internationally and also offers its repertoire of music to television stations, radio stations and mobile companies for use and broadcast.

5. The informant has alleged that the opposite party, which is the largest private publisher of Indian music and owns/controls over 70% of the latest Bollywood music, is abusing its dominant position in contravention of the provisions of section 4 of the Act by (i) charging excessive amount as license fees/royalty from the informant for grant of rights for the broadcast of the opposite party's music content on Fever 104 radio station; (ii) imposing minimum commitment charges ('MCC') to be paid to the opposite party per month irrespective of actual needle hour (each aggregate of sixty minutes of actual broadcast of sound recordings by FM radio station excluding commercials, advertisements, voice over, anchor time etc.) of broadcast of the opposite party's music content by the informant and (iii) making conclusion of licensing arrangements with the opposite party subject to the acceptance of license fees and MCC imposed by them. The informant has further alleged that such imposition of exorbitant license fees and MCC by the opposite party is an unfair condition imposed by it for granting license to broadcast its music content on radio under the Act which limits and restricts the right of the informant to broadcast its music content of other music companies/composers thereby limiting the choice of music for the end consumers to only the opposite party's music content and results in denial of market access for other music companies (publishers, copyright societies etc.) with less market share and bargaining power.

6. The informant has also alleged that the opposite party is infringing section 3 of the Act by requiring radio stations including Fever 104 to enter into a license agreement to broadcast its music content, the terms whereof are anti-competitive. As per the informant, the said agreement permits the licensee to broadcast music subject to acceptance of onerous conditions such as MCC obligations, which has the effect of restricting around 30-40% of the radio stations' broadcast to the opposite party's music content. Such conditions imposed by the opposite party have resulted in depriving consumers of their right to listen to their choice of music and also distort competition in favour of the opposite party as the conditions imposed force FM radio stations to predominantly broadcast the opposite party's music content thereby causing an appreciable adverse effect on competition in the relevant market in India.

7. The informant has further detailed the allegations against the opposite party which are summarized in the succeeding paras.

License Fee

8. The informant has st