CCI Is Watching Out For You: India’s Competition Regulator Accuses Indian Railways Of Abusing Its Dominant Position

India’s apex competition watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered an investigation against the Indian Railways and its online platform, IRCTC. It has accused them of abusing their dominant position by charging prices for e-tickets that were higher than the actual base fares, as reported by The Economic Times (ET).

According to the complaint filed with the CCI, it has been reported that both the accused entities have been rounding off the base fares to the nearest multiples of Rs 5. “At this juncture, it appears that opposite parties (Ministry of Railways and IRCTC) are rounding off the actual base fares for the online bookings without any plausible justification for the same,” the CCI stated.

On the other hand, Indian Railways has noted that the rationale behind the rounding off was to reduce the time taken to complete transactions on its servers. It should be pointed out that the IRCTC settles around 12 lakhs ticketing transactions in the country.

The complaint also alleges that Indian Railways earned around Rs 12 crores through this rounding-off.

Also Read:

India Railways Eliminates All Unmanned Crossings On Major Routes

Indian Railways Registers Its Best Safety Figures In Five Figures