[filcord]

Originally Posted by puchoo

A slightly more elaborate article on the same topic

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporat...mpaign=story-8

Long overdue judgment.
It's appalling how the auto manufacturers throttle competition in servicing. I had an eight-year old Ford and even for routine oil and filter changes I had to drag myself to the authorised dealer. Forget that, once I wanted to replace the air filter, a simple drop-in type. They refused to sell me the filter, and forced me to make a job-card and keep my car for half-hour, apart from the one hour travelling each way to get there.
In Europe, my brother-in-law services his six year old BMW at the neighbourhood garage. They do a very thorough job and all parts are easily available.
It's high time the Indian consumer got a break.

[joybhowmik]

It's interesting - that Maruti has been fined. Wonder why? I thought they are more upfront about selling Maruti Genuine spares through the MGP shops.
Really good that TKM has been fined too.
On multiple instances, I have had to bemoan the fact that I need to depend on them for even something as commonplace as engine oil, air filter, diesel filter! Time they got rapped on their hands for unfair practice!

[IMeMyself]

TML is fined the maximum followed by MSIL!? I was under the impression that it's the foreign car makers such as Skoda/Fiat/Ford etc that indulge heavily in such restrictive practices.

[RSR]

Aha! Finally, we have something that would (hopefully) force the car manufacturers to change their monopolistic practices!

It looks like every manufacturer has been slapped with a fine, though I don't quite understand how the amount was calculated for each of them.

Hyundai is also among the investigated manufacturers, but it seems they managed to obtain a stay order from a court to plead for more time to explain their case, before being fined. I'm pretty sure (most of) the other manufacturers are going to appeal against the verdict as well, after receiving the judgement and learning of their respective fines. Hyundai just happened to do it before they got slapped with a fine. So for all practical purposes, they are in the same boat as the others here.

Instead of endlessly appealing against this verdict, the manufacturers should change their attitude and henceforth allow the sale of spare parts, diagnostic tools & software and service manuals in the open market. This is how it is done in the more developed markets, and no manufacturer would dare to indulge in such monopolistic and anti-competitive practices in those markets. It's about time they also followed a similar policy here.

The good thing about this CCI investigation is that some manufacturers have already decided to make genuine spare parts available for sale without having to take the car to their dealerships/service centres. I hope this becomes the norm soon. To make things even better, they should allow component suppliers to supply genuine spares to independent garages and parts distributors under their own brand names, as mentioned in the order.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by IMeMyself

TML is fined the maximum followed by MSIL!? I was under the impression that it's the foreign car makers such as Skoda/Fiat/Ford etc that indulge heavily in such restrictive practices.

It seems CCI has added JLR revenues to TML to arrive at the penalty. Debatable and am sure TMl will appeal aggressively against the same.

[asr245]

Awesome move!

Let's hope this brings a change and original spares can be bought in open market.

BTW, I always thought original Maruti accessories could be bought in open market.

Originally Posted by IMeMyself

TML is fined the maximum followed by MSIL!? I was under the impression that it's the foreign car makers such as Skoda/Fiat/Ford etc that indulge heavily in such restrictive practices.

Penalty is based as a % of turnover. TML (including JLR) has the largest, so the biggest penalty.

[Hayek]

The order seems well argued but the fines are nutty. Poor old Tata Motors has been fined because it has a massive global turnover which is consolidated in India, and not based on the turnover from the relevant business.

[sgiitk]

I hear that appeal(s) are very likely, and CCI powers to enforce are somewhat limited.

[srishiva]

Why would they include JLR's global revenue in TML's revenue? Is this for all vehicles in which case TML will have a bigger revenue.

[RohanDheman]

Its funny how CCI has jumped the gun and passed the orders. Some earlier order passed by the CCI have been appealed by Nissan and Hyundai in Chennai and are listed for hearing today. In the event the Madras HC finds that earlier orders are ultra vires, out goes this CCI order. Could have waited a day or two!

Rohan

[nkrishnap]

I have always thought about this aspect, with the original spares available to open market there is always scope for introducing fake parts in the market by the culprits. The reason I ask this is, I have seen fake air filters for MJD in JC road, enquired only when I heard the cost which was about 40-45% cheaper than the MRP of OEM. The regular consumables are the easy pickings to fake the Originals. The fake ones will have detrimental effects on the engine over a period of time.

How will the manufacturer or CCI be able to deal with the issue of fake parts?

[theexperthand]

I may be wrong here, but don't Maruthi and Tata already sells spares in open market?

I remember seeing many shops advertising Maruti Genuine Parts (MGP) and they even have a site which have a list of dealers who sell MGP.

--Anoop

[filcord]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

I have always thought about this aspect, with the original spares available to open market there is always scope for introducing fake parts in the market by the culprits. The reason I ask this is, I have seen fake air filters for MJD in JC road, enquired only when I heard the cost which was about 40-45% cheaper than the MRP of OEM. The regular consumables are the easy pickings to fake the Originals. The fake ones will have detrimental effects on the engine over a period of time.

How will the manufacturer or CCI be able to deal with the issue of fake parts?

The issue of fakes cannot be solved by restricting sale of originals only to ASC. The solution is (1) decrease the prices (2) expand dealer list selling originals. (3) Police the fake market very rigorously. This is how the USA deals with the problem, and it works very well.

[isiv]

Yep, happy to read this. But whether this will really translate into some benefits for the end customer is to be seen. Given most organizations have a paid workforce to rack their brains to figure out loopholes to exploit.

On a side note, it's surprising to see Maruti Susuki and Tata in this list. I had the impression their parts a are pretty freely available outside of dealerships.

[jagzrk]

Sigh, this was forever pending and the way I see it, its going to drag on for a long time in the courts. Almost in every post regarding my Honda City ZX, the only issues were with the spare parts prices and authorized service station attitude. They clearly refuse to sell spare parts over the counter or ask you to pay spare part price and labor charge both upfront to get the spare part.

Now, I sent an email to Honda Customer Service asking from where I could procure the spare parts. I wonder if they even reply?