India's antitrust raids on global media giants ran through the night

19/3/2025 16:07

India's antitrust officers grilled media executives and seized data in an investigation into price fixing by global advertising agencies GroupM, Interpublic, Publicis and Dentsu, with raids continuing well past midnight into a second day on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said.



The Competition Commission of India (CCI) raids began early morning on Tuesday at around 10 locations in the strictest enforcement action ever against media agencies and a group of the nation's top broadcasters, just before the start of the popular IPL cricket tournament, the biggest sporting event for advertisers in India.



Top officials at the Indian office of GroupM were not allowed to go home overnight and the raid was still continuing on Wednesday, with evidence from mobile phones being cloned, two people with direct knowledge said.



Raids at Indian offices of U.S.-based Interpublic's IPG Mediabrands unit, Japan's Dentsu and top broadcasters industry group IBDF ended early morning on Wednesday, nearly 24 hours after they started, people familiar with the matter said



The raids come amid major shifts in India's ad landscape following a $8.5 billion merger between Walt Disney and Reliance's India media assets, which is estimated to have a 40% share of the ad market in TV and streaming segments.