In the present case, NSTPL, through lawyers Ruchira Goel, Nikhil Pillai and Asif Ahmed, filed a complaint with the ICC, accusing Star and Sony of pursuing, in coordination with and with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, a manipulative and unlawful interpretation of the regulatory provisions of TRAI`s interconnection regulations, which led to the creation of two parallel regimes of liaison agreements – one, the RIO-based regime, which offers all distributors with RIO-based agreements the same commercial conditions, but extremely high and painful; and, secondly, a separate set of liaison agreements with preferred distributors, which would not be in line with the RIO model, but with a fixed agreement on royalties and/or tariffs per subscriber (CPS) on very attractive commercial terms. Referring to a TDSAT ruling, the Fair Trade Regulatory Authority said that, despite regulatory oversight, broadcasters would have the opportunity to discriminate between distributors and use RIO-based agreements as a mechanism for denying transactions. Other channels may also be aware of the investigationThe Competition Commission of India (ICC) considered that the conduct of Star India Pvt Ltd and Sony Pictures Network Pvt. Ltd. in the alleged use of RIO (Reference Interconnect Offer) agreements on very difficult terms constituted a mechanism for refusing to do business as an anti-competitive practice. During the formation of a prima facie opinion that. The ICC relied on TDSAT`s decision to reject the allegation of the two broadcasters, who had argued that the informant`s allegation of price discrimination had no place, given that the distribution contract with the informant had been concluded on RIO terms regulated by TRAI, given that the same conditions are offered to all distributors who are presented in the same way to the informant. Attorney Vivek Chib, who worked for NSTPL, said both TV channels in their RIs have designed and validated their TV channels in such a way that it is not commercially profitable for any distributor working with rio-based agreements to compete effectively in the market. “To the point that Trai was forced to adopt new rules to ensure non-discrimination. Therefore, the informant`s (Noida Software Technology) claim that the agreement between OP-1 and OP-2 in RIO terms amounts to a refusal to talk about it has some value,” the watchdog said. The well-7 service provider DTH Dish TV has withdrawn its petition to the Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI). In this petition that Dish TV had filed before the introduction of the new tariff regime in the sector, the operator DTH had challenged some of the clauses contained in the terms of the Pre-NTO RIO .
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