Competition Commission of India: The Informant, T. G. Vinayakumar, a movie director, had approached CCI alleging anti-competitive conduct by Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), FEFKA Director’s Union, FEFKA Production Executive’s Union.
On different occasions, the said associations allegedly tried to force various actors, technicians, producers, financers, not to work or associate with the Informant in any of his project due to the Informant’s efforts to streamline working conditions of artists and for the initiative ‘Cinema Forum’, which envisaged collaboration between film makers and distributors to make low budget movies with new actors.
Consequent upon detailed investigation by Director General, CCI found that FEFKA as a mighty organisation in the Malayalam film industry consisting of 17 sub-unions engaged in different facets of filmmaking and due to the ban imposed by FEFKA and AMMA on the Informant, many of the artists and technicians were not able to deal with the Informant or any other non-member. Such anti-competitive practise was held to have an appreciable adverse effect on the Malayalam film industry.
Consequent upon detailed investigation by Director General, CCI found that FEFKA as a mighty organisation in the Malayalam film industry consisting of 17 sub-unions engaged in different facets of filmmaking and due to the ban imposed by FEFKA and AMMA on the Informant, many of the artists and technicians were not able to deal with the Informant or any other non-member. Such anti-competitive practise was held to have an appreciable adverse effect on the Malayalam film industry.
Accordingly, the Commission found the impugned decisions and practice of AMMA, FEFKA, FEFKA Director’s Union, FEFKA Production Executive’s Union and their five responsible Office Bearers viz. Shri Innocent, Shri Edavela Babu, Shri Sibi Malayil, Shri B. Unnikrishnan and Shri K. Mohanan to be in contravention of Section 3(3) of the Competition Act, 2002.
As a result, CCI passed the following orders:
• Cease and desist from indulging in anti-competitive conduct.
• A Penalty of Rs. 4,00,065, Rs. 85,594, Rs. 3,86,354 and Rs. 56,661 was imposed on AMMA, FEFKA, FEFKA Director’s Union and FEFKA Production Executive’s Union respectively, calculated at the rate of 5% of their average income.
• Further, Rs. 51478, Rs. 19113, Rs. 66356, Rs. 32026, Rs. 27737 was imposed as penalty upon Shri Innocent, Shri Edavela Babu, Shri Sibi Malayil, Shri B. Unnikrishnan and Shri K. Mohanan respectively.
As a result, CCI passed the following orders:
• Cease and desist from indulging in anti-competitive conduct.
• A Penalty of Rs. 4,00,065, Rs. 85,594, Rs. 3,86,354 and Rs. 56,661 was imposed on AMMA, FEFKA, FEFKA Director’s Union and FEFKA Production Executive’s Union respectively, calculated at the rate of 5% of their average income.
• Further, Rs. 51478, Rs. 19113, Rs. 66356, Rs. 32026, Rs. 27737 was imposed as penalty upon Shri Innocent, Shri Edavela Babu, Shri Sibi Malayil, Shri B. Unnikrishnan and Shri K. Mohanan respectively.
[T. G. Vinayakumar v. Association of Malayalam Movie Artists, 2017 SCC OnLine CCI 13, decided on March 24, 2017]
