The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld a penalty of Rs.  873 Crore imposed by the Competition Commission of India on UBL and other beer makers. A Division Bench of the NCLAT while dismissing the applications held that "appellants had already admitted in the leniency application regarding their involvement in the cartelisation."

The bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar Mishra said "Once they have admitted their involvement in an application filed under section 46 read with an application, they were only entitled to question the imposition of penalty." The bench further said, "Lesser penalty application is like an admission of guilt in a cartel."

The CCI had imposed the penalty on UBL, Carlsberg, All India Brewers' Association, and 11 individuals for forming a cartel in the sale and supply of beer last year on 24th September. This order dated 24.09.2021 was challenged before the NCLAT.

The objection of the appellants that the order is not sustainable since the impugned order has been passed in absence of any judicial member was also rejected by the bench by saying that the law does not mandate the same.

The prayer of the appellants for reduction of the penalty was also rejected by the NCLAT while saying "It is evident that though the CCI was having discretion to impose a penalty up to 10 percent average turnover for the last three financial years, in the present case besides granting benefit on leniency application the CCI has also taken a lenient view. It determined the quantum of penalty @ 0.5 times profit for each year of the continuance of cartel or 2 percent of the turnover for each year of the continuance of cartel whichever was higher."

The period of cartelisation was considered to be from 2009 to 2018 with Carlsberg joining in 2012 and AIBA serving as a platform since 2013