In January 2020, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) released a Market Study on E-Commerce. The Study focused on competition aspects pertaining to e-commerce marketplaces and platforms. It identified five issues in this respect: (i) platform neutrality; (ii) platform-to-business contract terms; (iii) platform price parity clauses; (iv) exclusive agreements; and (v) deep discounting. These...
SEBI Circular on COVID-19 Disclosures
That the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a company’s business, operations and finances is “material” is undisputed. A question, however, arises whether listed companies ought to make clear and full disclosures of such impact and, if so, under what regime. One option would be to rely on existing securities regulation that requires listed companies to make episodic as well as periodic...
Call for Papers: NLIU Law Review
[Announcement on behalf of the NLIU Law Review] The NLIU Law Review is the flagship journal of the National Law Institute University, Bhopal. It is a peer-reviewed academic law journal, published biannually by the students of the University. The Law Review aims to promote a culture of scholarly research and academic writing by bringing to the forefront, articles on subjects of interest to the...
The Impact of COVID-19 on M&A Due Diligence: The Way Forward
[Anushka Mehul Shah is a 2nd year student in the 3-year L.L.B course at the Government Law College, Mumbai] The outbreak of COVID-19 has had damaging ripple effects on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions around the globe. This year, global merger activity is at $762.6 billion so far, which is not only the lowest year-to-date amount for deal making since 2013, but it also down by 33%...
The Draft Valuers Bill, 2020: Catapulting Valuation as a Profession
[Amogh Sharma is a B.A L.L.B (Hons.) student at HNLU Raipur] On 30 August 2019, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had constituted a Committee of Experts to examine the need for an institutional framework to regulate and develop valuation as a profession. On the basis of the Committee’s recommendation, a Draft Valuers Bill, 2020 has been drafted to establish a National Institute of Valuers...
Revisiting Side-Pocketing in Mutual Funds: Question of Investor Protection
[Prankul Boobana is a fourth year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] With one of the bigger mutual fund houses winding up six of its debt schemes recently, the mutual fund (MF) industry, which was already facing liquidity issues, suffered a huge setback. In the past few months, the MF industry has witnessed various debt-laden companies defaulting and, resultantly, making delayed...
Call for Submissions: Trade, Law and Development
[Announcement on behalf of Trade, Law and Development] The Board of Editors of Trade, Law and Development is pleased to invite original, unpublished manuscripts for publication in the Winter ’20 Issue of the Journal (Vol. 12, No. 2) in the form of ‘Articles’, ‘Notes’, ‘Comments’ and ‘Book Reviews’. Manuscripts received by August 15, 2020, pertaining to any area within the purview of international...
Supreme Court on Applicability of SARFAESI to Co-operative Banks and the Banking (Amendment) Bill, 2020
[Karan Kamath is a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) graduate from Symbiosis Law School, Pune. The author would like to thank Rohan Deshpande, counsel, Bombay High Court for his inputs and comments on a draft version] On 5 May 2020, a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court in Pandurang Ganpati Chaugule v. Vishwasrao Patil Murgud Sahakari Bank Limited ruled that co-operative banks could resort to...
Unpacking the English Court Decision in Enka v. Chubb: Reversing the Sulamérica Presumption?
[Satyajit Bose is a III year BA LLB (Hons) student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] On 29 April 2020, the English Court of Appeal delivered its judgement in Enka Insaat ve Sanayi S.A. v. OOO “Insurance Co Chubb”. In a landmark decision, the Court held that in the absence of an express choice of governing law, it ought to be presumed that the parties had implicitly chosen...
Buyback during COVID – 19: A Solution to Salvage Stock Prices?
[Aditya Bhayal and Prachi Tripathi are 4th year B.A.LLB (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Amidst the growing uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock markets across the world have taken a beating in the past couple of months. Both of India’s benchmark indices, NIFTY and SENSEX, have registered lowest drops in over four years, as the market has slowly...
COVID-19: A Material Adverse Change?
[Gaurang Mansinghka is a 4th year student at the Government Law College, Mumbai] The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted human life across the globe. Stalled economies, dwindling stock valuations, supply chain disruptions and projections by various organisations indicating a gloomy economic future show that the economic contagion is spreading as fast as the virus itself. This post attempts to answer...
Frustration and Force Majeure: A Guide for the Perplexed – Part III
[Shiv Swaminathan is Professor and Associate Dean (Research) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS). Many thanks are due to Niranjan Venkatesan for his comments; my teaching assistant, Veda Singh and to Aaditi Pradeep and Rusha Ghosh Dastidar students of JGLS, for their research assistance] This is the final part of a multi part cheat-sheet on the doctrine of frustration (technically comprising...
The Game of Jurisdictions: Arbitration and Insolvency Proceedings
[Kunal Dey is an Associate at Argus Partners, Kolkata] The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has undergone significant changes as a result of the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015. However, before the contours of the amendments (brought into effect on 23 October 2015) could be established by the courts, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) was introduced into the...
Frustration and Force Majeure: A Guide for the Perplexed – Part II
[Shiv Swaminathan is Professor and Associate Dean (Research) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS). Many thanks are due to Niranjan Venkatesan for his comments; my teaching assistant, Veda Singh and to Aaditi Pradeep and Rusha Ghosh Dastidar students of JGLS, for their research assistance] This is part II of a multi part cheat-sheet on the doctrine of frustration (technically comprising...
The Prospect of AI in the ‘Virtual’ Corporate Boardroom
[Rongeet Poddar is a 5th Year student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on businesses around the world. The crisis has forced regulators to come up with prompt responses to maintain social distancing norms in companies. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has allowed companies to conduct virtual meetings. The Securities and...
Frustration and Force Majeure: A Guide for the Perplexed – Part I
[Shiv Swaminathan is Professor and Associate Dean (Research) at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS). Many thanks are due to Niranjan Venkatesan for his comments; my teaching assistant, Veda Singh and to Aaditi Pradeep and Rusha Ghosh Dastidar students of JGLS, for their research assistance] This is part I of a multi part cheat-sheet on the doctrine of frustration (technically comprising...
Expansion of the Scope of Public Policy: Antithesis to the Judicial Discourse in Enforcement of Foreign Awards
[Smriti Shukla and Yash Raj are 3rd year students of National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi] On 22April 2020, the Supreme Court in National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India v. Alimenta S.A. refused the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award on the grounds of violation of public policy. The Court, while allowing the appeal, held the award to be ex...
Is India’s Latest FDI Regulation in Violation of WTO Law?
[Ashi Mehta and Parv Kaushik are IV year B.A L.L.B (Hons.) students at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] On 17 April 2020, the Indian Ministry of Commerce & Industry issued a press note, which makes foreign direct investment (FDI) from an entity located in a land-bordering country subject to prior government approval. The stated aim of this amendment is to curb...
RBI’s Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways
[Abhishek Tripathy is a fourth year law student at the Institute of Law, Nirma University] In March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) issued the Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Gateways and Aggregators, which issued in furtherance of a discussion paper released by the RBI in September 2019. The guidelines have been made effective from 1 April 2020. The extensive use of electronic modes...
Facebook-Jio Deal: Big Data, Competition and Privacy
[Anupriya Dhonchak is a IV year student at the National Law University, Delhi] Facebook recently signed an all cash deal worth ₹ 43,574 crores to acquire a 9.99 percent stake in Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL). It is the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the technology sector in India thus far. The deal brings together Jio, India’s biggest telecom and...
OECD’s Relief Measures and the Indian Tax Regime
[Vishal Rajvansh is a 3rd year BA.LLB student at the National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi] The effect of the fight against Covid-19 has compelled several countries to implement unprecedented measures, such as restrictions on the free movement of people and goods, shutting down large parts of the economy and isolating a significant proportion of the population. Notably, the...
Super Priority Financing: An Opportunity in a Crisis
[Apoorva Upadhyay and Parthsarthi Srivastava are 3rd year BBA.LL.B students at National Law University Odisha] As the economic conditions continue to deteriorate, several corporations will likely turn to file for bankruptcy protection in the near future. One of the most sought after alternatives for such distressed companies would be access to capital to ensure minimum liquidity and continuation...
Research Reports: Converting UPSI into Public Information
[Ashlesha Mittal is an associate at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and a graduate of National Law University, Jodhpur] Five orders were released by the Assessing Officer of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on April 22, 2020, April 13, 2020 and March 26, 2020 against Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, SBI Funds Management Private Limited, IDFC...
An Evidence Based Analysis of Relevant Market: The Case of Ridesharing in Delhi National Capital Region (India)
[Amol Kulkarni is Director (Research), at CUTS International, Jaipur, India. Swasti Gupta is a Research Associate at CUTS International, Jaipur, India. Parveer Singh Ghuman is a former employee of CUTS International who participated in the study. Ujjwal Kumar is a Policy Analyst at CUTS International, Jaipur, India. This post was originally published in the Oxford Business Law Blog, and can be...
Is the Indian CSR Legal Framework COVID Ready?
[Ayush Vijayvargiya is a corporate lawyer in Mumbai and a graduate of NALSAR University of Law] Since the onset of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown in India, there has been constant public demand for increased spending by the Government to address shortage of medical supplies in hospitals, food and monetary allowance to urban and rural poor, shelter and food for homeless people, funding to...
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