Delhi High Court Reviews NRAI's Plea on Swiggy Confidentiality Access

On Wednesday, November 6, the Delhi High Court sent a notice to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and food delivery behemoth Swiggy over the National Restaurant Association of India's (NRAI) suit to have the company removed from the confidentially ring.  At first, NRAI was a member of the confidentiality ring, which allegedly allows parties to nominate individuals to access private and sensitive material during proceedings before the competition watchdog.

According to sources, this idea was first presented by the CCI in April 2022 to provide corporates the confidence to submit business information with the competition watchdog. According to Bar and Bench, Justice Sanjeev Narula heard the case on Wednesday and scheduled the next hearing for January 21, 2025. In front of the High Court, NRAI's advocate Abir Roy argued that the Director General report had arrived and that "we have to file our objections to it."
Nevertheless, it was mentioned that if they were not given access to the "confidential documents filed by Swiggy," it would not be feasible.

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According to the news, Swiggy and CCI said in court that the NRAI plea violated the rules governing confidentiality rings. Since the deadline for filing objections was drawing near, Roy asked to hear the case as soon as possible during the hearing. The court did, however, postpone the case until January of the following year.

In May of this year, Swiggy appealed to the Karnataka High Court over the CCI's decision to provide NRAI agents access to private data about the massive food delivery service.

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According to the Bar and Bench report, during the hearing, the high court returned the case to the CCI, requesting that it render a new decision. After then, NRAI was taken out of the confidentially ring by an order issued by the CCI. As a result, the group was compelled to appeal the ruling to the Delhi High Court. In 2021, NRAI submitted a complaint to the CCI alleging anti-competitive behavior by meal delivery services such as Swiggy and Zomato.
In 2022, the CCI noted in an order that they had a prima facie case against them. It consequently directed the DG to look into the NRAI complaint. According to reports, the DG wrapped up its investigation into the issue in March of this year.

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In the meantime, Zomato and Swiggy even submitted petitions to view the private version of the DG probe's conclusions. In addition to them, the NRAI requested access to the investigative report's confidential version.

To Summarize

The Delhi High Court issued notices to Swiggy and the CCI following NRAI’s plea for access to confidential documents in a competition case. The case, involving NRAI’s allegations of anti-competitive practices by Swiggy, is set for further hearing in January 2025.