The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) has refused to stay the proceedings of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against real estate major DLF and permitted the competition watchdog to go ahead with its inquiry. Compat will hear the case on February 10.
DLF had approached Compat against the CCI probe into the complaints raised by some of its customers over alleged “abuse of dominant position” by putting “discriminatory and abusive clauses” in the apartment agreements provided to the allottees of two of its high-profile projects in Gurgaon, Haryana. Early this month, the Delhi High Court also refused to grant a stay on the CCI investigations against DLF.
The petitions before CCI, filed by associations formed by some of the customers of premium residential projects like Park Place and Belaire, complain that DLF failed to deliver the residential projects on time and put “discriminatory and abusive clauses” in the apartment agreements provided to the allottees. It also says the builder is abusing its dominant position in the market.
The two projects are expected to have a total of 2,200 flats, priced between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3 crore each, making the total worth of the apartments in the range of Rs 4,500-5,000 crore. The projects, which started in August 2006, were expected to be completed in three years, but the developer extended the deadline to April 2011.
The Director General (investigations) of CCI, who gave his findings to the commission recently, is known to have endorsed the charges made by the allottees against DLF.
