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Competition Commission of India Clearance

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the chief national competition regulator in India. It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 in order to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. The CCI looks into cases and investigate it if the same has negative impact on competition, CCI also approves combination under the act so that two merging entities do not overtake the market.

The Competition Act 2002, prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

It is the duty of the commission to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India. The commission is also required to give an opinion on competition issues on a reference received from a statutory authority established under any law and to undertake competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues.

The objectives of the Commission are:

  • To prevent practices that harm the competition.
  • To promote and sustain competition in markets.
  • To protect the interests of consumers.
  • To ensure freedom of trade.

Why do we need Competition Laws?

Competition laws perform three main functions in society.

  • To uphold free-enterprise: the competition laws have been called the Magna Carta of free enterprise.
  • Security against market distortions: there is a constant risk of various people resorting to market distortions and abusing their dominant positions to resort to anti-competitive activities, thus competition laws are required to ensure that the market is safe from the various distortions.
  • They also aid in the promotion of domestic industries: Competition laws are required to ensure that the domestic industries do not get suppressed with an increase in globalization. They play a quintessential role in determining the viability of the domestic industries. However, to keep the Indian competition laws updated with the businesses of the digital world which include not many assets, the Indian government has established a Competition Law Review Committee.

Way Forward

With the advent of Web 3.0, AI, IoT, Blockchain and other technological developments, and emergence of issues like data protection and privacy, platform neutrality, deep discounting, killer acquisitions, etc., the need for a robust competition law, attuned to meet the needs of present-day techno-legal world, is important for India, which enables a true level playing field for the digital market players.

CCI should understand the technological nuances of the new digital era and whether these markets are being fairly, effectively, and transparently used for the benefit of consumers.

FAQs can become a permanent tool of advocacy which should be used to disseminate information on a ready-to-use basis. This would strengthen CCI’s position as a proactive and progressive regulator, and such guidance will help market players take preventive measures.

Challenges

The CCI faces multiple challenges while implementing the Competition Laws. The challenges can be both internal and external.

  • The constant and continuous change in the way businesses are undertaken and the evolving antitrust issue is proving to be a significant challenge for the CCI.
  • The emerging business models are based on a digital economy and e-commerce. This proves to be a problem for the CCI as the current competition laws talk only of assets and turnovers.
  • The number of benches of the CCI has to be increased to pronounce judgments more speedily on the competition cases.
  • The inclusion of parameters in the competition and antitrust laws such as data accessibility, network effects, etc. is important to ensure that the Competition laws are relevant in a digital economy.

The Mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions in India are regulated by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). CCI is the statutory authority responsible for reviewing combinations and assessing whether or not they cause or are likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within the relevant market(s) in India. CCI approval is required for combinations where the parties involved exceed the assets/turnover thresholds set out of the Competition Act.

We have experience in Competition Commission of India Clearance in the way of complying with the legal procedures for our clients and in completion of following regulatory processes. We have worked with clients in CCI Clearance representing them and have got satisfactory results for our clients.