[Shreya Saswati is a third year B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) Student at National Law University, Odisha] In its pursuit to curb the dissemination of unsolicited commercial messages, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) issued a direction on 2 October 2023 under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018 (“TCCCPR”). This directed all access providers (“APs”) to...
Analysis of CCI’s Market Study on the Indian Telecom Sector
[Bhavisha Sharma and Gayathri Pillai are IV year BA.LLB. (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] On 22 January 2021, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) released a Market Study on the Telecom Sector in India (“Report”) which summarises the recent trends witnessed in the telecom sector (“Sector”). This post summarises the key competition issues identified and...
The Delhi High Court on a Test for “Sectoral Regulators”
[Karan Kamath is a 2020 B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) graduate from Symbiosis Law School, Pune] The Delhi High Court in Monsanto Holdings Pvt. Ltd. v. Competition Commission of India (20 May 2020) ruled that the Supreme Court’s determination in CCI v. Bharti Airtel Ltd.(2018) is not applicable to the Controller of Patents. It also ruled that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) could investigate...
Mandatory Consultation as a Recourse to Settle the Tussle between TRAI and the CCI
[Rohan Bhargava and Nishtha Khandelwal are 3rd year students at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University] With the advancement in the technology and the advent of multiple private players in the telecommunication sector, there arose a requirement for a sectoral regulatory body to deal with various issues arising in the market. In India, the telecom sector is governed by the Telecom...
CCI’s Evolution in Relation to the Smartphone Market
[Sumit Jain is at the Centre for Competition Law and Economics (CCLE)] Through its order dated 16 April 2019 in Umar Javed v. Google LLC, the Competition Commission of India initiated a probe against Google Inc. for its potential abuse of dominant position on the Android platform. The order remains curious from multiple standpoints. First, it was not made public until as late as 18 June 2019...
Competition Law Issues in the Indian Telecom Sector: Analysis of Recent Developments
[Varun Kannan is a 5th year law student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] The telecom sector in India has witnessed intense competition over the past decade. The arrival of Reliance Jio and the Vodafone-Idea merger reinforce the steep competition that exists in this sector – which forces the market players to continuously enhance their performance and gain an edge over...
Competition Commission of India: Emerging Appellate Body for the Sectoral Regulators
[Bhaskar Simha L. N. and Sumit Jain are currently working with the Centre for Competition Law and Economics (CCLE)] The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established by the Competition Act, 2002 to promote and sustain competition in the Indian market. The said piece of legislation drew no distinction for sectoral regulators and allowed the CCI to look into every domain, barring sovereign...
Clipping the Powers of the CCI: Reflections from the Bharti Airtel Case
[Vrinda Aggarwal and Advik Rijul Jha are Fourth Year Law Students (BA-LLB) at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, Haryana] On 5 December 2018, the Supreme Court held that when there is a conflict between the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the latter is to prevail. Under section 18 of the Competition Act, 2002, the CCI...
Supreme Court on Jurisdictional Conflicts between the CCI and TRAI
[Rajvansh Singh is a 3rd year student at National Law University Odisha] Conflict in Jurisdiction The preamble of the Competition Act, 2002 read with section 18 of the legislation delegates to the Competition Commission of India (the “CCI”) the duty of “promoting and sustaining competition” in the Indian economy. This implies that the CCI will have principal jurisdiction to regulate conditions...
Mobile number portability on the horizon
Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile numbers when changing from one mobile network to another. Often, the only reason that keeps customers from changing operators is the lack of number portability. The inconvenience of having to change phone numbers on business cards and other documents, informing contacts of new numbers, has prevented customers...
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