Competition Commission of India

Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India and to prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. It was established on 14 October 2003. It became fully functional in May 2009 with Dhanendra Kumar as its first Chairman.[5][6]

Competition Commission of India
भारतीय प्रतिस्पर्धा आयोग[1]
Agency overview
Formed14 October 2003
Preceding agency
  • Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission[2]
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersNew Delhi
Agency executives
  • Ashok Gupta[3], Chairman
  • P K Singh [4], Secretary
Websitecci.gov.in

The Competition Act, 2002
Main article: The Competition Act, 2002

The idea of Competition Commission was conceived and introduced in the form of The Competition Act, 2002 by the Vajpayee government. A need was felt to promote competition and private enterprise especially in the light of 1991 Indian economic liberalisation.[7]

The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007, follows the philosophy of modern competition laws. The Act 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.[8]

The objectives of the Act are sought to be achieved through the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which has been established by the Central Government with effect from 14 October 2003. CCI consists of a Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government. 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.[8] 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.[8]

Objectives
"The main objective of competition law is to promote economic efficiency using competition as one of the means of assisting the creation of market responsive to consumer preferences. The advantages of perfect competition are three-fold: allocative efficiency, which ensures the effective allocation of resources, productive efficiency, which ensures that costs of production are kept at a minimum and dynamic efficiency, which promotes innovative practices."

Supreme Court of India Judgment in Civil Appeal No. 7999 of 2010 pronounced on 9 September 2010

Preamble to the Competition Act

An Act to provide, keeping in view of the economic development of the country, for the establishment of a Commission to prevent practices having adverse effect on competition, to promote and sustain competition in markets, to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets, in India, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.[8]

To achieve its objectives, the Competition Commission of India endeavors to do the following:

  • Make the markets work for the benefit and welfare of consumers.
  • Ensure fair and healthy competition in economic activities in the country for faster and inclusive growth and development of the economy.
  • Implement competition policies with an aim to effectuate the most efficient utilization of economic resources.
  • Develop and nurture effective relations and interactions with sectoral regulators to ensure smooth alignment of sectoral regulatory laws in tandem with the competition law.
  • Effectively carry out competition advocacy and spread the information on benefits of competition among all stakeholders to establish and nurture competition culture in Indian economy.

Composition

The Commission comprises a Chairperson and not less than 2 and not more than 10 members. Ashok Kumar Gupta is the current Chairperson of the CCI.[9] The members of the Competition Commission of India are:

  1. Dr. Sangeeta Verma
  2. Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi

Notable cases
  • In December 2010, CCI instituted a probe to examine if there was any cartelization among traders when onion prices touched 80 rupees, but did not find sufficient evidence of market manipulation.[10]
  • In June 2012, CCI imposed a fine of ₹63.07 billion (US$880 million) 11 cement companies for cartelisation. CCI claimed that cement companies met regularly to fix prices, control market share and hold back supply which earned them illegal profits.[11][12]
  • In January 2013, CCI modified clauses in agreements between real estate company DLF Limited and apartment buyers.[13] Business and finance Portal Moneycontrol.com welcomed the order saying that, "This is a landmark ruling and will benefit property owners across the country". Some of the important modifications were:
    • The Builder cannot undertake any additional construction beyond the approved building plan given to the buyers.[13]
    • The builder will not have complete ownership of open spaces within the residential project area not sold.[13]
    • Not just the buyer but the builder will be liable for any defaults.[14]
    • All payments made by the buyers must be based on construction milestones and not "on demand".[14]
    • The builder will not have the sole power to form the owner’s association.[14]
  • On 8 February 2013, CCI imposed a penalty of ₹522 million (US$7.3 million) on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for misusing its dominant position. The CCI found that IPL team ownership agreements were unfair and discriminatory and that the terms of the IPL franchise agreements were loaded in favor of BCCI and franchises had no say in the terms of the contract. The CCI ordered BCCI to "cease and desist" from any practice in future denying market access to potential competitors and not use its regulatory powers in deciding matters relating to its commercial activities.[15][16]
  • In 2014, CCI imposed a fine of ₹10 million upon Google for failure to comply with the directions given by the Director General seeking information and documents.[17]
  • On 25 August 2014, CCI imposed a fine of ₹2544 crores on 14 Indian car manufacturers for failure to provide branded spare parts and diagnostic tools to independent repairers, hampering their ability to repair and maintain certain car models. The companies fined were Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Hindustan Motors, Mercedes Benz and Skoda. [18]
  • On 17 November 2015, CCI imposed a fine of ₹258 crores upon Three Airlines. Competition Commission of India (CCI) had penalized the three airlines for cartelization in determining the fuel surcharge on air cargo. A penalty of Rs 151.69 crores was imposed on Jet Airways, while that on InterGlobe Aviation Limited (Indigo) and SpiceJet are Rs 63.74 crores and Rs 42.48 crores respectively.[19]
  • In May 2017, CCI ordered a probe into the functioning of the Cellular Operators Association of India following a complaint filed by Reliance Jio against the cartelization by its rivals Bharati Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea cellular.
  • On 8 February 2018, it had fined Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. for 135.86 cr rupees for 'search bias'.
  • On August 12, 2018, the CCI approved the Disney-Fox deal.[20]
  • In July 2018 the Commission imposed fines on the Federation of Gujarat State Chemists and Druggists Association, the Amdavad Chemist Association, the Surat Chemists and Druggists Association, the Chemists and Druggists Association of Baroda, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Hetero Healthcare Ltd, Divine Saviour and their staff and officers for breaches of the Competition Act 2002 by requiring No Objection Certificates before appointing stockists.[21]
  • In May 2019, the commission ordered an antitrust probe against Google for abusing its dominant position with Android to block market rivals. This probe was ordered on basis of the analysis of a similar case in the EU where Google was found guilty and fined.[22]
  • In June 2019, CCI issued letters to handset makers seeking details of terms and conditions of their agreement with Google. This is to ascertain if Google imposed any restrictions on them for using the company's apps in the past 8 years from 2011.[23]
gollark: > i tried writing an operating system as my first rust project, so i might be a bit biased in hating itMaybe you should try not doing that. It's really quite nice, apart from the compile times.
gollark: The way the pixels' values are determined is some weird sort-of-recursive thing, so it's extremely hard to actually trace what's going on.
gollark: I don't think so, in Rust that would cause an error.
gollark: It's not meant to have the green/blue blotches but they're *there* and I have *no idea why*.
gollark: For "random image stuff", I have this output from my still broken (I have no idea what causes the bugginess) port of a Haskell art thing.

References
  1. "Photo of CCI title". live mint. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  2. "Section 66 in The Competition Act, 2002". Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  3. https://www.cci.gov.in/commission
  4. https://www.cci.gov.in/commission
  5. "CCI formation". CCI. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  6. "CCI through the eyes of the media: Doing well!". MoneyControl.com. 18 September 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  7. "In fact: How India learnt to promote, and regulate, competition". Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  8. "The Competition Act – Act No. 12 of 2003" (PDF). Competition Commission of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  9. "CCI – Organogram". Competition Commission of India. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  10. Venkatesh, Mahua (15 August 2013). "Competition panel to probe hoarding, onion price rigging". Hindustan Times (New Delhi ed.). Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  11. "Competition Commission of India imposes Rs 6,307 crore penalty on 11 cement companies". Economic Times. 22 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  12. "Busted: 'Cartelising' cement firms". Business Standard. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  13. "Competition Commission of India modifies DLF-buyer agreements". Economic Times. 4 January 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  14. "CCI ruling on DLF: Changing the builder-buyer equation?". Money Control. 4 January 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  15. "SS-Barmi-v-BCCI". 8 February 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  16. "Competition watchdog slaps Rs.52.24 crore fine on BCCI". Live Mint. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  17. "CCI imposes a fine of Rs. 1 Crore upon Google for failure to supply information/ documents in the investigations". PIB. 27 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  18. "Competition panel fines 14 car makers Rs 2,554 crore". LiveMint. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  19. "Cartelisation: CCI imposes Rs 258 crore fine on Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet". 18 November 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2016 – via Financial Express.
  20. Malvania, Urvi (12 August 2018). "Fox-Disney deal: CCI approves takeover of Murdoch's company in India". Smart Investor. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  21. "CCI fines chemist and druggist associations and pharma companies". Lexology. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  22. "Exclusive: India orders antitrust probe of Google for alleged..." Reuters. 11 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  23. Aulakh, Gulveen (20 June 2019). "CCI asks handset companies for info on agreements with Google". The Economic Times. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
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