India’s federal antitrust regulator has fined General Motors and 13 other automakers a combined 25.4 billion rupees ($420 million) after the Competition Commission of India found them stifling competition in the spare parts market.Â
According to Automotive News, the commission found that automakers were charging high prices by providing spare parts only to authorized repair shops.
“The car companies charged arbitrary and high prices for their spare parts” through monopolistic controls, the commission found. It also found automakers guilty of “distorting fair competition” by using their market position to protect their respective businesses for repair services.Â
The commission feels these restrictions have inhibited the full potential of independent repair shops “at the cost of the consumers, service providers and dealers,” the commission said in a statement. It’s “even more deplorable” considering all the companies have fine track prisoners of operating legally in Europe, the regulator said.
“Regulators are getting more aggressive in emerging markets, which is logically the right thing to do as the markets reach a certain threshold,” said the director at Emerging Markets Automotive Advisors in Delhi, Deepesh Rathore.
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