The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed a complaint filed against BookMyShow alleging that the online ticket booking platform abused its dominant position in the market.

Hearing a case on a complaint filed by the owner of BookMyShow’s smaller rival Showtyme, the antitrust body said that while the former holds a dominant position in the online ticketing market, it has not abused its position.

Vijay Gopal, the founder of Showtyme, claimed that BookMyShow’s domination of the market was a hindrance for newer players. In his complaint, he said that BookMyShow had entered into ‘exclusive and refusal to deal’ agreements with cinemas for a period of 2-5 years which has bound operators to only sell tickets through the BookMyShow platform.

He further alleged that BookMyShow charges movie-goers a ₹25 convenience fee, which it splits in half with multiplexes, and for single screen theatres, it provides commission of ₹6-8. As per Gopal, his platform charges a fee of ₹11 to customers booking tickets, out of which it shares ₹5 with movie theatres of all formats.

Despite the considerable difference, theatres were not able to partner with Showtyme due to cash loans or monetary deposits given on ‘zero interest’ by BookMyShow to cinemas, as per Gopal, who claimed to have approached over 30 multiplexes and theatres in his home city of Hyderabad to confirm this.

He named multiple such operators in the case, including INOX and Cinepolis, stating that their agreements to sell ‘100%’ tickets through BookMyShow was hurting the business of smaller players.

The CCI agreed that BookMyShow holds a significant sway in the online ticketing business due to its early entrance in the space, “significantly higher market share combined with its vertical integration, dependence of consumers on the enterprise, high entry barriers and lack of countervailing buyer power”.

However, the regulator dismissed the allegations, noting that it “is unable to come to a conclusion that the OP (opposite party) has abused its dominant position by imposing terms and conditions, which have the impact of foreclosing the market and denying market access to other players in contravention of the provisions of Section 4(2)(c) of the Act”.

It highlighted that the existence of other players like Paytm, Justickets and Amazon proves that the market is not a monopoly and remains open for new players.

It also dismissed allegations that reserving seats specifically for BookMyShow to sell was anti-competition, saying it was a requirement to avoid double-booking. Unsold seats are released to the theatres prior to the show to be sold at their own discretion.

The competition watchdog also held that the allegations of discriminatory revenue-sharing arrangements in relation to convenience fees were unsubstantiated, as the terms of these agreements were signed between the parties based on scale and contract negotiations, and that it was not the job of the regulator to interfere in pricing.

Consequently, it held that BookMyShow had not violated the abuse of dominance provisions under Section 4 of the Competition Act and dismissed the proceedings.

Notably, BookMyShow was one of the earliest entrants in the online ticket booking industry. It competes with Eternal-owned District, which acquired Paytm’s event and movie ticketing business for ₹2,048 Cr in 2024 to foray into the segment.

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