1. Financial Software and Systems Private Limited (hereinafter, the 'Informant'/'FSS') has filed the information in the instant case, under section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 (hereinafter, the 'Act') against M/s ACI Worldwide Solutions Private Limited (hereinafter, the 'Opposite Party No. 1'), M/s ACI Worldwide Incorporated, Florida, USA (hereinafter, the 'Opposite Party No. 2') and M/s ACI Worldwide (Asia) Pvt. Limited, Singapore (hereinafter, the 'Opposite Party No. 3') [collectively hereinafter, the 'Opposite Parties'/'ACI'], inter alia, alleging contravention of provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the Act in the matter.

2.Facts, in Brief

2.1 The Informant is stated to be a private limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and operating in the areas of electronic payment, financial transaction processing solutions and services. It has been a technology partner, system integrator and co-innovator for several leading banks to transform their payment systems, increase operational efficiencies and launch new business processes. The Informant caters to the specific needs of the banks through its two business divisions i.e., FSS Technologies and FSSNeT. FSS Technologies provides services to the clients including systems integration, offshore development, product sustenance, project management and implementation, upgrade and migration services, product testing and certification, application testing, onsite technical support and 24/7 global helpdesk support. FSSNeT offers payment processing services across all delivery channels including Automated Teller Machine ('ATM'), Point of Sale ('POS') terminals, internet and mobile with authorization by the banks. It provides services such as card management, merchant management, internet payment gateway, mobile banking & mobile payment, reconciliation & settlement, financial inclusion, a bouquet of value added services and ATM management services on a pay-per-use model including leasing ATM and site management.

2.2 The Opposite Party No.1 is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Opposite Party No. 2 (a NASDAQ listed public company) engaged in the business of developing 'BASE24' software for electronic payment solutions that enable card-based payment transactions. The Opposite Party No. 3 is a company incorporated under the laws of Singapore. All the Opposite Parties have been described as affiliate/group entities. The Opposite Parties are stated to be engaged in the business of developing BASE24, a transaction processing switch software ('Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) Switch'), which according to the informant enables an ATM or POS terminal to communicate with the relevant bank's core banking network.

2.3 As per the information, all banks and financial institutions which desire to provide ATM, POS, mobile banking and internet banking services require EFT Switch/switch software and at present about 77% of ATMs and about 80% of POS terminals in India operate on BASE24 software. It is further submitted that BASE24 software (and other comparable software) requires modifications to enable banks to offer additional value added services through ATMs and POS devices. It is stated that the relationship between ACI and the banks which are using BASE24 software ('ACI Banks') is governed by a license agreement that provides the right to ACI Banks to use and to customize the modules of the BASE24 software.

2.4 The Informant provides software modification and customization services to ACI Banks. The Informant and ACI are stated to have had a long standing relationship, starting from FSS acting as a re-seller for ACI for BASE24 software in India in 1991, and then in 1998 becoming a distributor and service provider for BASE24 software in India through various International Distribution Agreements ('IDA'). During the currency of distribution agreement, certain disputes arose between FSS and ACI sometime in 2007-08. On 16 June