The Competition Commission of India has imposed penalties totaling 1.4 billion rupees against HP India and associated reseller partners for engaging in anti-competitive practices involving the pricing and distribution of computers, ink cartridges, toner, and related printing supplies.
The regulatory action centered on two primary areas of alleged misconduct. First, the CCI found that HP India coordinated with five reseller partners to manipulate bid prices for government contracts, artificially reducing competition among HP-affiliated distributors seeking to win public sector supply agreements. According to the regulator’s order, resellers had requested various forms of support from HP India, including territorial restrictions on competing resellers, account division arrangements, limitations on manufacturer authorization forms, and the submission of cover bids designed to appear competitive while lacking genuine intent to win.
Second, the agency determined that HP India and 16 Tier-2 reseller partners engaged in a collusive arrangement involving price fixing and customer allocation spanning 2017 through 2020, as evidenced by communications on WhatsApp. The CCI characterized these communications as demonstrating bid rigging, cover bidding, and coordinated pricing practices within the market for printer consumables.
HP India received a 1.3 billion rupee fine for the bid coordination conduct and an additional 119.8 million rupee penalty for the cartelization of toner and cartridge sales. Twenty-one individual resellers were assessed combined penalties of 35.2 million rupees. In its defense, HP India argued that high printing supply costs had forced resellers to threaten switching to counterfeit products, claiming the company was commercially pressured into supporting the collusive arrangement rather than orchestrating it. The CCI ordered all parties to cease anti-competitive conduct and implement competition compliance training within 60 days. HP India has not issued a public response to the fines.
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