Past misdeeds come back to haunt MakeMyTrip and OYO

Why read this story?

Editor's note: Last week, the Competition Commission of India concluded its three-year-long investigation into the MakeMyTrip-OYO affair. In its order, the antitrust regulator asked MakeMyTrip and OYO to cough up Rs 223 crore and Rs 169 crore in penalties respectively. It is a sizeable amount, except that most CCI penalties don’t end up getting paid. The CCI has a recovery rate of about 1%, since most of its orders are challenged by aggrieved parties in higher courts, where they languish.  That said, the MakeMyTrip-OYO order is important because it goes into painstaking detail about how this combine brazenly thwarted competition. At the heart of the CCI’s investigation is an examination of MakeMyTrip’s primary defence: Is the freedom of contract—the right to choose whom you do business with—fundamental? At this point, a quick recap is in order. In April 2018, when the online travel industry was in the throes of cut-throat competition, India’s largest online travel aggregator, MakeMyTrip, decided to get into bed with OYO, the up-and-coming budget room franchise and operator.  MakeMyTrip and OYO weren’t exactly friends in the early years of …