“VakTavya” 3rd National Moot Court Competition, 2019

Team Code : CU-11

BEFORE THE

HON’BLE

SUPREME COURT OF ATLANTIS

Sigma Industries Ltd. And
APPELLANT(S)
Cosmos Infocomm Ltd.

Vs.

Atlantis Appellate Tribunal RESPONDENT(S)

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………..
INDEX OF AUHTORITIES…………………………………………………
STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION………………………………………….
STATEMENT OF FACTS…………………………………………………………..
STATEMENT OF ISSUES RAISED……
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS……………………………………………..
ARGUMENTS ADVANCED………………………………………………….
PRAYER
 INDEX OF AUTHORITIES

STATUTORY AUTHORITY
1. The Competition Act, 2002
2. Constitution of India
3. Federal Trade Commission Act, 1914
4. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890
5. Clayton Antitrust act, 1914
6.

BOOKS REFERRED
1. Textbook on Competition Law, Dr. H. K. Saharay
2. Competition Law in INDIA, T. Ramappa
3.

WEBSITES
1. www.lawctopus.com
2. www.ftc.gov
3. www.ourdocuments.gov
4. www.linfo.org
5. www.investopedia.com
6. Ec.europa.eu
7. Eur-lex.europa.eu
 8. www.business-standard.com
9. www.vakilno1.com
10. www.businestoday.in
11. www.competition.cyrilamarchandblogs.com
12. www.mondaq.com
13. www.indiacorplaw.in
14.

CASES REFERRED
1. Bharti Airtel Limited vs Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Jio
Infocomm Limited. Case no. 03 of 2017, Competition Commission of India.
2. Competition Commission Of India vs Bharti Airtel Limited And Others.
3. Union Of India vs Cynamide India Limited, 1987 AIR 1802, 1987 SCR (2)
841
4. Mr. Ramakant Kini vs Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, Mumbai, case
no. 39 of 2012
5. M/s ESYS Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd. SCO, 326, Sector 40 - D,
Chandigarh – 36
vs

Intel Corporation (Intel Inc.) Santa Clara, California, USA Intel

Semiconductor Ltd. 32/F Two Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Central, Hong
Kong And Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd SCO, 19, Sector 17 - E,
Chandigarh -17, case no. 48 of 2011.

6.
 STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. The sovereign Republic of Atlantis is a South Asian democratic country; the
laws are pari materia with the laws of India, subject to exceptions specified below.
The Atlantis Competition Act (ACA) is the primary statute governing competition
law in Atlantis, and the Atlantis Competition Commission (ACC) is the statutory
authority charged with the enforcement of the Atlantis Competition Act (ACA).
ACC is empowered to and has issued, several regulations, like the Atlantis
Combination Regulations (ACR) which deals with mergers and acquisitions.

2. The decisions of the major countries where common law is prevalent are of
significant value for the Republic of Atlantis. The ACC also relies on established
competition law precedents of the European Union and the United States of
America.

3. Ranked at 45th position in Fortune 500 world ranking, Sigma is one of the
fastest growing companies of Atlantis. Cosmos is a new subsidiary company of the
Sigma Groups providing 5g services in Atlantis. Anish Mangwani is the chairman
of this group. Other businesses of Sigma group are chemicals energy, steel,
petroleum gas, DTH, Airlines, shopping malls – retail chain, clothing etcetera.

4. In a 5G spectrum auction, Cosmos won the race and purchased one of the
spectrums. Owing to high price of the bid many business groups did not participate
and those who did were not ready to pay a base bid price as high as 5.77 Lakh
Crore Atlantis Rupee (expected revenue). In Atlantis earlier, only 2.400-2.4835
GHz and 5.825-5.875 GHz were unlicensed bands for indoor and outdoor use of
low power equipment. Recently, 5150-5250 MHz, 5250-5350 MHz, 5470-5725
MHz and 5725-5875 MHz frequency bands have been included as unlicensed for
use in indoor and outdoor environment. The opening of more unlicensed
frequencies will facilitate development of 5G ecosystem as per directives of the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of Atlantis (TRAA). Single-band bid price varies
from spectrum to spectrum from 4000 Crore to 8000 Crore Atlantis Rupee.
5. Cosmos was the first company to introduce a 5g spectrum in the Republic of
Atlantis. Cosmos invested almost 600,000 thousand Crore to develop 5g network
in the Republic of Atlantis.

6. With the advent of the science and technology, especially Artificial Intelligence
(AI) future belongs to those companies which are running on superfast 5g network,
for instance, self-driven cars need high precision to take real-time decisions to
avoid accidents. Following are the key areas where 5g network is a big boom;
agriculture, transportation, photography, market investment, health (to identify
future illness i.e. cancer), life on another planet, marketing, customer services,
computer apps and programs, machine learning, space travel, real-time web search,
etcetera.

7. Worldcom and Uniphone were the major telecommunication companies in

Atlantis, comprising a total of 70% share in the telecommunication market (40%
Worldcom and 30% Uniphone, respectively). But the entry of Cosmos in the
telecom market of Atlantis with its predatory pricing policy and new superfast 5g
network. As a result, within 3 years Cosmos has become a leading player with 59%
share in the telecom market. Out of 12 mobile operators which were functioning in
Atlantis, only 5 operators have sustained because other operators stopped working
due to predatory pricing policy and political relations of Cosmos. According to a
new global survey, Cosmos is expected to become the world’s largest telecom
service providing company by 2021.

8. Cosmos started providing almost free connections (free data and calling plan) to
new consumers for one year as a gift, thus, leading millions of consumers to switch
to Cosmos under National Mobile Portability Scheme. Therefore, Worldcom and
Uniphone approached the ACC regarding the misuse of the dominant position and
predatory pricing policy. The TRAA was silent on this event and later announced
that a subscriber is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date
of activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the
same can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting.
TRAA has explained that this minimum period is required so as to enable the
service provider to recover the customer

acquisition cost. After porting of a mobile number, if it remains disconnected for

90 days, it will be reversed back to the number range holder (original operator).

9. Mr. Anish Mangwani (Chairperson- Sigma) is also a member of the parliament

of Atlantis and has good relations with the ruling government. Being one of the
biggest businessmen and entrepreneurs of Atlantis, he is helping Atlantis in
becoming global leader at different forums i.e. United Nations, World Bank, WTO,
GATT, etc. because of which there are rumors that Atlantis can be a global leader
by 2050.

10. Cosmos took benefit of its position in the market share, made an agreement of
acquisition with Virgino Telecom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular and
purchased these companies at comparatively much lesser price (due to market
uncertainty). But there is a big dispute regarding acquisition agreement i.e. the
terms and conditions were not allegedly fair and existing shareholders of above-
mentioned companies were not in favor of this agreement.

11. Atlantis is also a party to different global treaties on anti-trust. Monopolies

regulations and World Trade Organization are also against the malpractice and
blind support to big corporate giants.

12. Citing similar powers available with the fair-trade watchdog ACC, Security
Exchange Board of Atlantis (SEBA) has proposed to impose a lesser penalty on a
person who may have violated securities laws but provides assistance during
investigation. Cosmos is providing every kind of support to all the regulatory
bodies both at National level and International level.

13. The ACC has exercised its powers to club matters together and asked both
WorldCom and Uniphone’s matter (Misuse of Dominant Position) and Virgino
telecom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular’s matter (mala fide Acquisition) to
file brief written submissions covering their arguments in relation to both matters.

14. On 10th March 2019, ACC gave its ruling and denied all the allegations of;
WorldCom and Uniphone regarding misuse of dominant position and Virgino
Telecom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular’s regarding the mala fide acquisition.

15. Meanwhile, the Investigation Bureau has issued its investigation report wherein
it has concluded that the allegations made by WorldCom and Uniphone against
Cosmos are correct.

16. WorldCom and Uniphone have decided to go against the decisions of the ACC
and have appealed to the Atlantis Appellate Tribunal (APT) on 1st May, 2019.
17. Virgino Telecom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular have also decided to be
party to the above said appeal and moved an application regarding the same before
the Tribunal.

18. On 26th July, 2019, the Appellate Tribunal ruled in favor of the applicants and
therefore, Sigma and its subsidiary company; Cosmos, preferred an appeal within
the limitation period before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, against the ruling of the
tribunal. The Supreme Court has decided to take up the matter on the 10th of
October, 2019.

STATEMENT OF ISSUES
1. Whether the appeal is maintainable before the Hon'ble Supreme Court?

2. Whether the misuse of the dominant position is a direct violation of;

 Article 19 (1)(g) and 39 (b) and (c) of the Constitution; and

 The Atlantis Competition Commission Act, 2002?

3. Whether the report of the Intelligence Bureau can be a good base for preferring an
appeal against the decision of the Atlantis Competition Commission?

4. Whether the acquisition of the Virgino Telcom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular by
Cosmos, is good in the eye of law?

5. Whether cosmos is in a dominant position or not ?

6.
 SUMMARY ARGUMENTS
Contention 1
1. Whether the appeal is maintainable before the Hon'ble Supreme Court?

Contention 2
2. Whether the misuse of the dominant position is a direct violation of;

 Article 19 (1)(g) and 39 (b) and (c) of the Constitution; and

 The Atlantis Competition Commission Act, 2002?

Contention 3
3. Whether the report of the Intelligence Bureau can be a good base for preferring an
appeal against the decision of the Atlantis Competition Commission?

Contention 4
4. Whether the acquisition of the Virgino Telcom, Inrich Cellular and Airfree Cellular by
Cosmos, is good in the eye of law?

Contention 5
5. Whether cosmos is in a dominant position or not ?
ARGUMENT ADVANCED
Contention 1
PRAYER