The Indian Competition Authority closes investigation against an alleged phenol importers cartel after not finding evidence with 12 out of 19 parties which account for 95% of the market (Deepak Phenolics / Chemtrade Overseas / Shubham Chemicals & Solvents)

Key points To conduct an investigation in a time bound manner, out of the 19 phenol importers, the DG investigated 12 that accounted for 95% of the total sales volume of phenol.In the absence of any evidence indicating an agreement or meeting of minds amongst the phenol importers, a mere price parallelism does not indicate collusion.Brief facts An information was filed before CCI under Section 19(1)(a) the Act, alleging that 19 phenol importers had formed a cartel to artificially hike the price of phenol by about 90% between January – March 2016.