Officers of the Competition Commission of India searched around 10 locations after it initiated a case against the agencies and top broadcasters over allegedly fixing ad rates and discounts.
The Indian antitrust body has raided the offices of many global advertising giants, including GroupM, Dentsu and Interpublic Group, and a broadcasters' industry group over alleged price collusion, people with direct knowledge told Reuters on Tuesday.
Officers of the Competition Commission of India searched around 10 locations after it initiated a case against the agencies and top broadcasters over allegedly fixing ad rates and discounts, said one of the sources. The raids were being carried out in Mumbai, New Delhi and Gurugram, just before the start of the popular IPL cricket tournament, the biggest sporting event for advertisers in India.
Spokespersons for GroupM, Interpublic's IPG Mediabrands unit, and Dentsu did not respond to requests for comment.
The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation also did not respond, and neither did the competition commission, which does not make public the details of its enforcement action or cases related to price collusion.
Britain's WPP-owned GroupM is the world's largest media buying agency. WPP in 2023 said it had a 45% media market share in India, with 45 of the top 50 advertisers as clients.
The Indian Broadcasting foundation represents top domestic broadcasters, including billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance-Disney joint venture and Sony and Zee Entertainment.
The raids come amid major shifts in India's ad landscape following a $8.5 billion merger between Walt Disney and Reliance's India media assets, which is estimated to have a 40% share of the ad market in TV and streaming segments.
In a case started last year, the CCI is investigating allegations that broadcasters and media agencies were colluding on prices and discounts of ad rates. If found guilty, the media agencies may be liable to pay a penalty amounting to up to three times their profit for each year during which the collusion took place, or 10% of their turnover for each year of wrongdoing, whichever is higher.
Source: Business Standard
