Under Section 27 of the Competition Act, 2002, where an enterprise is found to have contravened the Act (anti-competitive agreement or abuse of dominance), the Competition Commission may impose a penalty of:

Section 27(b) and the proviso permit the CCI to impose a penalty on an enterprise found to have contravened the Act: up to TEN PER CENT of the average TURNOVER for the last three preceding financial years; and in the case of a CARTEL, the HIGHER of up to THREE TIMES the profit for each year of the continuance of the cartel, or ten per cent of the turnover for each year. This is coupled with the power to issue cease-and-desist orders and other directions under Section 27(a). The 10%-of-turnover (and cartel-highest-of-three-times-profit) formula is the defining penalty benchmark of the Act.