India's Tata Steel and CK Birla group, as well as subsidiaries of Sweden's SKF and Germany's Schaeffler Group, may face huge fines for conspiring to manipulate bearing prices, a Competition Commission investigation found Tuesday, Beijing time.

India's Competition Commission began its investigation in 2017 after complaints that the companies conspired to manipulate bearing prices between 2009 and 2014, shifting higher raw material costs to customers in the automotive industry.

According to the data, India's bearing market is dominated by SKF and Schaeffler, with a scale of US $1.3 billion. India's competition commission can impose a fine of up to three times the annual profit or 10% of the revenue of the offending enterprises, whichever is higher.

In 2014, SKF, Schaeffler and three Japanese companies were fined a total of US $1.3 billion by the European Union for manipulating bearing prices.