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Informist, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026

 

--SC rejects JioStar plea vs CCI probe in Kerala TV channel distribution mkt

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected Reliance Industries Ltd.-owned JioStar India Pvt. Ltd.'s plea against the Competition Commission of India's antitrust probe into the television channel distribution market in Kerala. A bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Sandeep Mehta said that the allegation of abuse of dominant position against JioStar India needs to be looked into by the competition regulator. 

 

The case has its genesis in Asianet Digital Network Private Ltd. filing a complaint before the Competition Commission, alleging that JioStar India abused its dominant position and denied market access to the complainant by entering into sham marketing agreements with its competitor Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd. Under Telecom and Regulator Authority of India rules, the maximum retail price for each pay channel was fixed, where broadcasters were not allowed to give a cumulative discount of more than 35% of the maximum retail price payable to distributors. However, Asianet Digital alleged that JioStar India offered Kerala Communicators discounts of up to 50% by entering into marketing and advertising agreements with the latter and offering benefits in the form of discounts.

 

In 2022, the competition regulator said that JioStar India offered additional discounts to select multi-system operators and Kerala Communicators, which was Asianet Digital's main competitor in Kerala. JioStar India has placed multi-system operators like Asianet Digital at a huge disadvantage, which is detrimental to the competition and competitors in the market, said the regulator.

 

According to the antitrust regulator, the result of JioStar India providing channels to Kerala Communicators at a discounted price was that Asianet Digital was constrained to price its channels higher than those of Kerala Communicators, ultimately losing consumers, with a corresponding gain to the latter. Asianet Digital had to offer services at a loss-making price to retain the subscriber base, but in vain, said the regulator.

 

Thereafter, JioStar India moved the Kerala High Court, and argued that the case against the company was related to the violation of TRAI regulations. As the allegations pertain to the violation of the regulatory framework conceived by the TRAI, any breach of this regulatory framework could be examined only by the telecom regulator, as the latter was the sectoral regulator and would have the exclusive jurisdiction over the subject matter, said JioStar India. However, the high court in December said the Competition Commission of India, which is the sectoral regulator for dealing with anti-competitive practices in the relevant market and misuse of the dominant position, would have the jurisdiction to deal with these allegations, and not TRAI. Challenging the high court's order, JioStar India moved the apex court.  End

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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