CCI fined Maruti Suzuki ₹200 crore for policing dealer discounts with mystery shoppers

In August 2021 the Competition Commission of India fined Maruti Suzuki India Limited ₹200 crore for resale price maintenance. CCI found Maruti's 'Discount Control Policy' restrained dealers from offering customers discounts, freebies or extras beyond what the carmaker prescribed, with prior approval required for anything more.

The policy was actively enforced: Mystery Shopping Agencies posed as customers, recorded dealers who discounted too much, and Maruti imposed penalties on dealerships and named employees — direct sales executives, regional managers, showroom managers — sometimes threatening to stop supplies. Penalty money even moved through a Pune dealer's personal account to pay Maruti's own advertising bills.

The case began suo moto after an anonymous dealer email; the director general's investigation found emails showing Maruti planned and ran the scheme. CCI ruled the conduct had appreciable adverse effect on competition under Section 3(4)(e) of the Competition Act, ordered Maruti to cease and desist, and set a 60-day deadline to deposit the fine.

₹200 crore penalty plus a cease-and-desist order; NCLAT stayed the fine in November 2021 on a 10% deposit, with the appeal still pending through late 2025

Maruti treated dealer discounts as a threat to brand and price discipline, so it capped them and policed dealers with mystery shoppers

The control went beyond guidance: penalties on named employees and threats to stop supplies made it a coerced, enforceable arrangement

Capping resale discounts is RPM under Indian competition law, and with Maruti's market share the harm to price competition was treated as appreciable

The enforcement machinery — spies, penalties, a personal collection account — turned what might look like brand management into documented evidence of an anti-competitive scheme

Protecting dealer margins by capping discounts is resale price maintenance — even informal policies enforced through mystery shoppers and supply threats are illegal, whatever the brand rationale.

Maruti said it would take 'appropriate action under law'. NCLAT stayed the ₹200 crore penalty in November 2021, requiring a 10% deposit, and the appeal remained pending through 2025, with a final hearing date set for November 19, 2025. The case fixed in India that a manufacturer's discount control amounts to resale price maintenance and is treated as anti-competitive even when dealers are not formally contracted to comply.