CCI begins investigation against ACI Worldwide

MUMBAI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has begun investigating a case against the Indian arm of US-based ACI Worldwide Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a payment solutions company. A formal investigation was initiated on a complaint “that ACI has abused their dominance by imposing unfair conditions in the purchase or sale of goods or services through exclusive supply arrangements, limiting and restricting the technical or scientific development in the market etc,” the government said in a statement. The CCI will complete the investigation in 60 days, it said.

A copy of CCI’s order was posted on its website on Monday afternoon and the complaint was registered by Chennai-based Financial Software and System Pvt. Ltd against ACI India, M/s ACI Worldwide and M/s ACI Asia Pvt. Ltd, it said.

ACI develops a software that enables card-based payment transactions for banks. This enables an automated teller machine or a point-of-sale terminal to communicate with a bank’s core banking network. “After initial examination, CCI has observed that prima facie the conduct of the respondents amounts to ‘tie-in arrangement’ and ‘refusal to deal’. Such agreements are also likely to have appreciable adverse effect on competition looking at the market share and market size of the enterprise in question,” the release said.