The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a thorough investigation against Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for misusing the dominant position regarding the organising professional domestic cricket leagues.
CCI took that decision after a complaint was filed by Pan India Infraprojects Pvt Ltd (previously known as Essel Sports Pvt Ltd).
CCI made a 14-page order where they said, “Thus, it appears that BCCI has abused its dominant position in the market of organisation of professional domestic cricket leagues in India by excluding the informant [Pan India Infraprojects] or any of its group companies from participating in tenders for media rights for IPL.”
Pan India Infraprojects Pvt Ltd was the promoter of Indian Cricket League (ICL). They alleged that BCCI appeared to have excluded it from the downstream market by disallowing any bid for the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights.
Earlier, BCCI came under the scanner of the fair trade regulator. On June 1, CCI said in their order, “The sports federations engaged in organisation of tournaments leagues are put to advantage if they also possess the authority to grant approval for organisation of similar events by others and set conditions for such organisation. BCCI seems to have taken advantage of such a situation.”
On May 2, during the preliminary conference, CCI pointed out that BCCI is still maintaining the restriction in the tenders issued by the BCCI IPL media rights (2018-2022).
The order further added, “whereby the informant and its group companies have been foreclosed from participating in any media rights tenders issued by the BCCI.”
