The NCLAT dismissed all three appeals, upholding the...

The NCLAT dismissed all three appeals, upholding the Commission's finding that the appellants engaged in anti-competitive practices constituting contraventions of Sections 3(3)(c) and 3(3)(d) read with Section 3(1) of the Competition Act. The Tribunal affirmed that a cartel may be inferred on a probabilistic standard from circumstantial evidence and parties' conduct, and found the documentary record here demonstrative of bid-rigging in soil-testing tenders. The direction under Section 27(a) to cease and desist was endorsed as legally valid. The Tribunal also approved the Commission's methodology of computing penalty on total turnover given nil relevant turnover of first-time bidders, concluding there was no infirmity in the impugned order.