On August 28, 2018, CCI dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance against Nutritia International Pvt. Ltd. (‘Nutritia’) with respect to the failure of Nutritia to supply goods to Mr. Prabhakhar Pandey, a stockist for Nutritia’s goods (‘Informant’). [1]

The Informant filed the information before CCI against Nutritia alleging that Nutritia had abused its dominant position by ceasing its business operations with the Informant and by not supplying goods even though the Informant had already deposited an advance towards the procurement of goods from Nutritia. CCI initiated its assessment by delineating the relevant markets as ‘(i) market for infant formula milk in India; (ii) market for baby food nutritional supplements in India; and (iii) market for protein based nutritional supplement products in India’, keeping in mind the business activities of Nutritia (protein based nutritional supplements, including ‘Protinex’) and the geographic scope of homogenous competitive conditions. As regards Nutritia’s dominance, CCI observed that Nestle was a market leader with 63% market share in the market for baby food in India and collectively held 83% market share, along with Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation in this market (in 2017). It was further observed that Protinex too had numerous substitutes available in the market such as ‘Horlicks Protein Plus’ etc. In light of the same CCI did not considered Nutritia to be dominant either in the baby food market or nutritional supplements market in India.  In absence of dominance, CCI did not assess the allegations of abuse.

[1] Mr. Prabhakar Pandey v. Nutricia International Private Limited, Case No. 28 of 2018 (Order dated August 28, 2018)