COMPETITION APPELLATE TRIBUNAL DISMISSES CASE
It is befitting that The Competition Tribunal dismissed the appeal
filed by ADF against the order of the Competition Commission exactly a
year since Jab Tak Hai Jaan released on 13th November 2012.
After
the COMPETITION COMMISSION had dismissed the complaint filed by AJAY
DEVGN FILMS (ADF) on the basis that they were of the opinion that there
was no contravention of the Act in this case, the COMPETITION APPELLATE
TRIBUNAL, in a order of 8th November 2012, also refused to
pass any interim order against YASH RAJ FILMS (YRF) on the ground that
the complainant had not put forward sufficient facts to establish that
YRF had violated the Competition Act.
A completely misleading
press release was put out by ADF alleging that an enquiry had been set
up to look into ‘the anti-competitive activities of YRF’ since the
Competition Appellate Tribunal had not found any merit in the contention
of ADF because the Tribunal was of the view that ADF had totally failed
to establish that the agreements entered into by YRF with the single
screens cinemas would cause any appreciable adverse effect on
competition. It was also noted by the Tribunal that YRF had announced
the release of its film on 27th June 2011 with its
announcement of the release of its film for Diwali 2012 and commenced
booking of single screen theatres in June, July & Aug 2012. On the
contra, ADF announced the release of its film only on 29th May 2012 and
approached the single screen owners only in October 2012 by which time
YRF had taken a lead. It was expressly noted that the number of screens
contracted for JAB TAK HAI JAAN, being far less than that of EK THA
TIGER, prima facie no case of adverse effect on competition, much less
appreciable effect on competition, was made out.
Despite
several media queries at that time, YRF had maintained a strict media
silence while the matter was pending before the competent judicial
authorities, deeming it inappropriate to comment on the matter while it
was before the judicial authorities. YRF has never desired nor
manipulated such unethical publicity as a film promotional device for
itself.
It
is unfortunate that our refusal to comment had led to aspersions being
cast on YRF’s business practises, which have always been ethical and of
the highest standards.
On 13th November 2013, after considering
and dismissing individually all the points raised by the Appellant,
AJAY DEVGN FILMS (ADF), the Honourable Chairman, Justice V. S. Sirpurkar
and the other Honourable Members of the Coram, Shri Rahul Sarin &
Mrs. Pravin Tripathi, concluded that “there is no merit in this appeal
and this appeal must be dismissed”.
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