CCI raids: AAAI refrains agencies from sharing information among themselves

New Delhi: Days after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) raided the premises of top media agencies, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) wrote a letter to its member agencies asking them to refrain from sharing any information among themselves.

AAAI officials declined to comment on the matter. However, multiple sources told BestMediaInfo.com that the letter explicitly outlined the adherence to the competition law obligations under the Competition Act 2002.

The law enforcement sleuths raided the offices of AAAI and its members on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, on behalf of CCI.

The industry body is understood to have asked its member agencies to determine their commercial conduct independently, whether it is pricing or discounts.

The AAAI refrained its members from any form of coordination or sharing of commercially sensitive information among themselves.

BestMediaInfo.com was the first to report on Thursday that, while the raids involved seven top agencies and three industry bodies, GroupM was the primary target.

A week after the raids, the forensic experts at the CCI's DG office are examining the digital data and documents collected during the raids.

The Director General (DG) of the CCI has been probing alleged anti-competitive practices in connection with certain commercial arrangements between the advertising agencies and broadcasters.

Once the CCI concludes that there is a prima facie violation of competition norms, the case is referred to its DG for a detailed probe. The DG, the investigation arm of the fair trade watchdog, has powers to conduct raids after court approval.

Under Section 3 of the Competition Act, CCI can look into anti-competitive agreements among enterprises.