All eyes are on Asian Paints’ stock as buzz builds around a possible probe by the Competition Commission of India. The stock has fallen up to 1.2% to intraday low of Rs 2,221.60. The antitrust watchdog is expected to decide in the coming days whether to launch an investigation into allegations of the company misusing its market dominance.
At 1:14 pm, shares of the company traded 0.1% lower from their closing price on Monday, June 9. At its Monday close, the stock was just 6% above its 52-week low level, which it touched in March this year. On the other hand, it was nearly 34% below its 52-week high level. The specialty chemical stock has lost over 23% in the last one year and 1.5% in 2025 so far.
The buzz around CCI’s involvement stems from a complaint raised by the paint venture of the Aditya Birla group, Birla Opus, in November last year. The complaint alleged that Asian Paints, which is the market leader with 53% market share, had indulged in anti-competitive conduct and exclusionary practices, such as restricting dealers from doing business with Grasim’s Birla Opus. It was also alleged that Asian Paints had put pressure on raw material suppliers to deny supplies or price-discriminate against the Aditya Birla group firm.
According to reports, the watchdog has received comments from both Birla Opus and Asian Paints and will likely take a decision in the next few days. Asian Paints has almost 1.69 lakh touch points created over a period and it keeps on increasing quarter to quarter and over the years, it said in a post-earnings conference call.
Apart from Birla Opus, JSW Paints had also earlier raised complaints related to arm-twisting of dealers against Asian Paints, but the watchdog disposed the plea, saying that Asian Paints has been able to show that some of its dealer-focused conduct adopted was in furtherance of its terms of doing business with them and not to keep JSW Paints away from the market.
The paint venture of JSW group also alleged that Asian Paints coerced enterprises that provided infrastructure facilities to them to not stock JSW Paints’ products.
