India antitrust body finds HP rigged bids on government procurement platform

BENGALURU: India’s competition regulator found PC maker HP guilty of rigging bids on the government’s electronic procurement platform, ordering the company and 21 of its resellers to stop the practice and pay penalties totalling $15 million.

The Competition Commission of India found HP India dictated bid prices to its resellers and selectively withheld authorisation documents to control which of them could compete for government contracts.

The orders, issued late Monday, covered tenders for personal computers and printer consumables between 2017 and 2020. HP India did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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HP India itself filed lesser penalty applications under the country’s Competition Act that triggered both investigations, and received significant reductions in penalty for its disclosures and cooperation.

Five resellers were found to have colluded with HP India in the personal computers case, and 16 resellers were found liable in the printer supplies case.

Several HP India officials and reseller executives were also held personally liable under the competition rules, which imposes individual penalties on officers under whose consent or connivance a contravention took place.

The CCI directed all contravening parties to cease the practices and conduct competition compliance training programmes within 60 days.

The orders add to a growing body of cartel enforcement by the CCI, which has penalised companies across sectors from beer to cement in recent years.