The US-based Cognizant said Infosys has failed to provide enough evidence to support its monopoly allegations on Cognizant
| Photo Credit:
Dado Ruvic
Cognizant Technology Solutions has filed a 5-point argument in a court in Texas, US urging it to dismiss Infosys’ counterclaims in a recent court battle between the two IT giants. In a filing dated April 14, the US-based Cognizant said that Infosys has failed to provide enough evidence to support its monopoly allegations on Cognizant.
Infosys and Cognizant have been embroiled in a court case wherein the former has claimed that the US-based Cognizant was being ‘anti-competitive’ and using its monopoly power to block Infosys’ healthcare platform Helix from competing against Cognizant’s TriZetto Software Group.
Cognizant’s arguments
As per the court filing viewed by businessline, Cognizant said that Infosys’ claims do no make it past the realm of “merely conceivable” and asked for it to be dismissed. “The Court should dismiss Infosys’ counterclaim for failure to state a claim,” Cognizant argued.
Cognizant said Infosys failed to identify what other products are part of the alleged ‘competitive’ markets. This way, Cognizant said Infosys has also failed to allege that “Cognizant has monopoly power in either alleged market.”
Cognizant noted that while Infosys argues that Cognizant reduced output by failing to make improvements to its software and limiting other companies’ access to its proprietary information, “Infosys never alleges facts connecting these actions to reduced output.”
Cognizant also argued that Infosys relies on “conclusory allegations” that the IT services market for payors is specialised and rendered by “few firms” like Cognizant and Infosys, and that payors do not see more generalised IT providers or proprietary solutions as viable options.
The counterclaim alleged that the Non-Disclosure and Access Agreement and Most Favoured Vendor provisions delayed Infosys Helix’s development. Cognizant said, by this, Infosys has “not pleaded harm to other competitors, but only to itself, which is insufficient. “Infosys nowhere alleges that Cognizant forsook any profits to implement its NDAAs or MFV provisions, or to hire Infosys’s employees, and, as for training, Infosys admits it was “the prior owners of the software” (not Cognizant) that had the existing course of dealing,” Cognizant said.
Antitrust case
In January this year, Infosys filed an antitrust case about Cognizant’s anticompetitive scheme to achieve, maintain, and enhance its dominance in both the healthcare payor software market and the related IT services market for that software. This is in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, as well as the Texas Free Enterprise Antitrust Act, says the counterclaim filed in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division, the filing said.
Cognizant’s anticompetitive scheme to stall Infosys Helix’s launch included the targeted recruitment of key senior executives responsible for Infosys Helix, including Cognizant’s CEO S Ravi Kumar (who resigned from Infosys in October 2022), and incentivising them to delay and obstruct the development and marketing of Infosys Helix in the months leading up to their departures, Infosys said.
Published on April 16, 2025
