CIL213 | Practice and Procedure of Indian Competition Law

Competition law defends the practice of fair competition. One of the reasons for having legal framework for competition in market is to remedy those instances where the actions of one or more individuals or entities or organizations causes the collapse of free market system. It is important to lay down rules of the game so that every participant of the market has a fair and equal chance of flourishing.

With the growth of both volume of transactions and the complexity of economies, jurisdictions across the globe have come to realize the need and benefit of having a well- defined competition policy and probably this is the reason the antitrust regime has seen the fastest growth when compared to other economic regulations. It is widely accepted, though some economists rebut the idea that competition law acts as a catalyst in promoting innovation and economic growth along with social progress of the nation.

Antitrust laws prevent individual or collective acts or any other form of negative co-operation that adversely affects competition and functions to set prices at altitudes at which market can breathe, largely without interference and in a way that cannot be done through central control. Indian competition regime is fairly new when compared when compared to its counter parts. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 was passed subsequent to finding and recommendations of Mahalanobis (1960) and Monopolies Inquiry Commission (MIC) (1964) to prevent monopolization or concentration of economic power. MRTP can be said to be the precursor of Competition Act, 2002 and can be considered as a move from preventive mechanism to evelopmental mechanism. The LPG model coupled with the shortcomings of MRTP paved the way for passing of new Act on the recommendation of Raghavan Committee. Doing away with prohibitory provisions for monopoly trade practices, restrictive trade practices and Unfair trade practices, the new Act has three major provisions which deal with ‘Anti-competitive agreements, Abuse of dominance and Regulation of Combinations.’

The growing powers of Competition Commission of India is evident from its recent decisions which cuts across different sectors including petroleum, pharma, entertainment, real estate, cement etc and which has forced market entities to review their business strategies and focus on competition compliances.

The present course has been designed to comprehensively cover the development of competition Law in India. The course also encapsulates the major issues which affect modern corporations and growing markets.