- HP India has been fined 1.42 billion rupees ($14.7 million) for two separate cases
- Self-reporting ultimately landed it with lighter fines
- Both cases concern government tender manipulation between 2017 and 2020
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has accused HP India and some related dealers of coordinating bids for Indian government contracts on the government’s e-marketplace.
According to the CCI, the company and certain partners manipulated public tenders at predetermined or announced bid prices, by submitting deliberately uncompetitive bids to create competition and control rebates.
The regulator revealed two separate cases for investigation – one relating to PCs and the other relating to printing consumables such as ink and toner.
HP accused of fabricating bids to win Indian government contracts
In the discharge case, the CCI disclosed emails, witness statements, WhatsApp group conversations and even a 2019 video of a dealer meeting. Discussions were found about which companies would submit supporting bids, prices and discounts, and which dealer would win special contracts.
The CCI stated that a total of 16 Tier-2 dealers had violated its competition law through bid-rigging, with HP India fined 119.8 million rupees and its dealers fined a total of 23 million rupees.
A separate case revealed similar behavior covering laptops, desktops, workstations, POS systems, peripherals and more. Similarly, five additional dealers were singled out on top of HP India’s core businesses, bringing this case’s fines to 1.3 billion rupees and 12.2 million rupees respectively.
The CCI’s final orders bring HP India’s total fines to about 1.42 billion rupees, or $14.7 million, excluding the fines imposed on its partners.
But the fine could have been much worse had HP India not come forward and admit wrongdoing between 2017 and 2020 after submitting a minor fine application to buy itself a discount on the fines.
TechRadar Pro have asked HP for a comment, but we did not receive an immediate response.
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