[Pranshu Gupta and Roopam Dadhich are 4th year B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] On 26 November 2020, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) introduced an amendment to the CCI (Procedure in regard to the transaction of business relating to combinations) Regulations, 2011 (‘Combination Regulations’), through which para 5.7 of Form I has been deleted making it...
Supreme Court Affirms Expansive Locus Standi under Competition Law
The Supreme Court in Samir Agrawal v. Competition Commission of India (decided 15 December 2020) was concerned with some basic but important questions of law. Can a member of the public file information with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alleging a violation of the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002 and thereby triggering an investigation by the regulatory authority? If aggrieved...
CCI’s Market Study on Private Equity: Time to Clear the Air?
[Priya Maharishi is a 4th-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, Haryana] The issue of common ownership and its impact on the competition landscape has preoccupied the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a long time. The concern has become pressing in the light of increase in private equity (PE) investments in India. To show some teeth in the game, the CCI...
Google’s Antitrust Saga: Pay to Play
[Anchit Nayyar is a 4th year BBA LLB (Hons) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] Through its order dated 9 November 2020, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) has launched investigations into allegations pertaining to Google abusing the dominance of its Android Operating System (“Android OS”) and the Play Store to give an unfair competitive advantage to its UPI application Google Pay...
Can Competition Law Regulate Privacy?
[Jyotsna Vilva is a 5th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] The question of regulation of privacy and data protection issues through competition law has gained traction in recent years. In the past, while the European Commission has considered privacy to be a parameterof non-price competition, both the European Court of Justice and the...
An Argument in Favour of an Effectively Mandatory CCI Approval Under Section 31(4) of the IBC- Part II
[Mayank Udhwani and Ragini Agarwal have recently graduated from National Law University, Jodhpur. Part I in this series is available here] In this two-part series, the authors argue that the provision under section 31(4) of the IBC must not be watered down and that approval from the CCI must be obtained prior to the approval of the resolution plan by the adjudicating authority. In part-I, the...
An Argument in Favour of an Effectively Mandatory CCI Approval Under Section 31(4) of the IBC – Part I
[Mayank Udhwani and Ragini Agarwal have recently graduated from National Law University, Jodhpur] The introduction of section 31(4) through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Second Amendment) Act, 2018 was intended to fine tune the workings of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 [‘IBC’]. The clause provides that the resolution applicant is required to obtain necessary statutory approvals...
Recent Antitrust Issues in the US – Learnings for the Indian Competition Regime
[Vanshika Katiyar and Rajat Maloo are 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.] On 29 July 2020, the heads of America’s largest tech giants, namely, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook testified before the United States’ Congress. The members of the antitrust committee of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives...
Establishing Locus Standi under the Competition Act: A Problem-Solution Mismatch
[Kajal Singh and Nikunj Maheshwari are 4th year law students at Institute of Law, Nirma University] The Competition Act, 2002, is a comprehensive piece of legislation intended to identify and curb any anti-competitive practices, which goal is sought to be achieved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). In furtherance of the same, the CCI has been vested with powers to initiate an inquiry...
Hub and Spoke Cartels: A Perspective on Future Investigations
[Aditya Goyal and Shreya Chandhok are students at National Law Institute University, Bhopal] Amidst the ever-increasing anti-competitive concerns and the inadequacy of the present competition regime to tackle the emerging issues, the Indian Government introduced the draft Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in March this year. One of the proposed amendments in the Bill widens the scope of...
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