{"id":38849,"date":"2018-12-14T18:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T13:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=38849"},"modified":"2018-12-14T18:46:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T13:16:27","slug":"telecom-tribunal-sets-aside-trais-predatory-pricing-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/telecom-tribunal-sets-aside-trais-predatory-pricing-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Telecom tribunal sets aside TRAI\u2019s predatory pricing rule\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/telecom-tribunal-sets-aside-trais-predatory-pricing-rule-5492769\/\"><strong>Telecom tribunal sets aside TRAI\u2019s predatory pricing rule<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has rejected Telecom Regulatory Authority of India\u2019s (TRAI) rule on Predatory Pricing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Important facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What is Predatory Pricing?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Predatory Pricing\u00a0is the practice of a firm selling a product at very low\u00a0price\u00a0with the intention of driving competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry into the market for potential new competitors.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>TRAI\u2019s Rule on Predatory Pricing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>TRAI prohibited incumbent operators from providing discounts which are not part of tariff package to their high-APRU (average revenue per user) subscribers.<\/li>\n<li>It considered a tariff predatory if in a &#8220;relevant market&#8221; a telecom operator with over 30% market share (Significant Market Player) offers services at a price which is below the average variable cost, with a view to reduce or eliminate competitors. However, the rules allowed newer operators to offer such tariffs till they reached the threshold mark.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><em>Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) judgement:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><u>Rejection of definition of \u201csignificant market player\u201d (SMP):<\/u><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the tribunal, the definition is flawed as TRAI retained subscriber base and gross revenue, but ignored capacity and traffic share while determining SMPs.<\/li>\n<li>It further stated that the definition gave artificial protection to a telco, who may have the capacity and intent to destabilise the sector through predatory pricing before it attains the defined status of SMP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><u>Rejection of definition of Predatory Pricing:<\/u><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>The Tribunal stated that the powers of TRAI are limited to examining whether a tariff is predatory or not.<\/li>\n<li>It has no jurisdiction to define predatory norms which fall under the ambit of competition laws overseen by the Competition Commission of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><u>Rejection of Disclosure norms:<\/u><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>The tribunal also rejected the norm which made it mandatory for telecoms to disclose on their websites segmented offers or tariff discounts aimed at retaining customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Additional Information:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a statutory body set up by the Government of India under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.<\/li>\n<li>It is the regulator of the telecommunications sector in India<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>TDSAT was set up in 2000 to adjudicate disputes and dispose of appeals with a view to protect the interests of service providers and consumers of the telecom sector and to promote and ensure orderly growth of the telecom sector.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telecom tribunal sets aside TRAI\u2019s predatory pricing rule\u00a0 News: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has rejected Telecom Regulatory Authority of India\u2019s (TRAI) rule on Predatory Pricing. Important facts: What is Predatory Pricing? Predatory Pricing\u00a0is the practice of a firm selling a product at very low\u00a0price\u00a0with the intention of driving competitors out of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/telecom-tribunal-sets-aside-trais-predatory-pricing-rule\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Telecom tribunal sets aside TRAI\u2019s predatory pricing rule\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}