The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed a more than 10-year-old case against 12 hospitals in Delhi, concluding that there was no evidence of abuse of dominant position through unfair pricing practices.
The case involved allegations that hospitals charged excessive rates for medicines, consumables, and medical devices. Following complaints, the CCI had ordered an investigation by its Director General (DG) in 2015, along with a supplementary probe in 2018. Revised reports were submitted in 2024.
Hospitals named in the case included multiple Max Healthcare and Fortis facilities, along with Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, St. Stephen’s Hospital, and Batra Hospital.
Although the DG found violations of competition norms, the CCI rejected those findings and closed all 12 cases through separate but similarly worded orders issued on May 21.
The regulator stated that the DG’s conclusions were based mainly on observations that the hospitals charged “higher prices” and earned “significant profit margins,” without properly establishing whether those prices were legally “unfair.”
Citing the legal framework laid down in the United Brands case, the CCI explained that proving abusive pricing requires a two-step assessment first determining whether prices are excessive, and then whether they are unfair in themselves or compared to competing products.
According to the CCI, the DG failed to apply this legal standard correctly and wrongly treated excessive pricing as automatically unfair. As a result, the Commission found no sufficient grounds to establish abuse of dominance by the hospitals.
