A routine GST enquiry has opened a can of worms in India’s Rs 1.2 lakh crore advertising industry. The Competition Commission of India raid on several media agencies just ahead of the 2025 IPL season will force the industry to take a relook at pricing strategies, explains Alokananda Chakraborty
What triggered the raids?
Insiders say the search by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) could have been triggered by one of the following two reasons — unfair commissions and price collusion — or both. Simply put, the investigation centres on whether top broadcasters and tech companies were hand in glove with member agencies of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to prioritise their advertisements, in contravention of the antitrust rules under the Competition Act, 2002.
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It is suspected that a bunch of advertising agencies, broadcasters, and large tech support agencies — both global and local — have come together to manipulate advertising rates and discounts or even fiddled with advertising inventory in a way that helped some players dominate the digital advertising platforms (digital comprises 60% of total ad spending in the country). Coming just days ahead of the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) — the cricket tourney starts on March 22— the industry is speculating that the raids are connected to the advertising contracts for the sports extravaganza.
Which are the agencies under scrutiny?
The CCI initiated searches at the Mumbai, Delhi and Gurugram offices of top media agencies, including GroupM, Publicis, Dentsu, Madison and IPG Mediabrands, as well as the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), an apex body of broadcasters, over alleged fixing of ad rates and discounts.
Industry insiders believe the March 18 search operation primarily targeted GroupM, owned by the UK’s WPP, and therefore, it might face tougher scrutiny from the anti-trust body going forward. However, all of these agencies along with many smaller ones are handling ad deals for big and small advertisers for the IPL.
The regulatory heat on the sector also comes at a time when India’s advertising market is undergoing major shifts, following the $8.5 billion merger between Walt Disney and Reliance’s India media assets, expected to control 40% of the TV and streaming ad market.
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