WHAT IS COMPETITION ACT, 2002?

The Competition Act, 2002 is passed an enacted by the Parliament of India. Its purpose is to govern Indian competition law. It replaced the old The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969. This act is applicable to the whole of India. This act was enacted to prevent activities that have an adverse effect on competition in India.[i]

This act is equally applicable on written as well as oral agreement. It is used to implement and enforce competition policy and to prevent and punish anti-competitive business practices by firms and unnecessary Government interference in the market.

Through this Act, a Commission is established whose role is to protect the interests of free and fair competition and protect the interests of consumers. The duties of the Commissions are as follows:

• To prevent the abuse of dominance in the market;
• To prevent agreements that are likely to have or have an appreciable adverse effect o competition in Indian market;
• To prevent acquisitions, mergers, amalgamations and such between enterprises which have or likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on the competition in Indian market.

FEATURES OF THIS ACT

The features of Competition Act, 2002 can be classified as follows:

• Anti-Agreements.
• Abuse of dominant position.
• Combinations.
• Competition Commission of India.
• Review of orders of Commission.
• Appeal.
• Penalty.

OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPETITION ACT[ii]

The objective of this Act is to provide the legal framework to ensure competition policies are met and to prevent anti-agreement competition practices and provides for penalties for such a conduct. However, the objectives of the Competition Act can be summarized into the following:

• Its objective is to provide the framework for establishment of the Competition Commission.
• To prevent monopolies and promote healthy competition in the market.
• To protect and safeguard the interest of the consumer.
• To protect the freedom of trade for participating individuals and entities in the market.
• To protect the interests of smaller companies.
• To prevent those practices which have adverse impact on competition in the Indian markets
• To ensure the freedom and protect the rights of trader in Indian markets.

WHAT IS COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA?

CCI is a statutory body which acts as the competition regulator in India. It was established in 2003 and became fully functional in 2009. Its objective is to prevent practices that are harmful for the competition, to ensure freedom of trade, to protect the interests of consumers and to promote and sustain competition in markets. It is the task of CCI to check into issue related to Anti-Competitive Agreements and Abuse of Dominant force in the Indian Markets. This Commission comprises of a chairperson and should have at least 2 members and at most 6 members who are appointed by the Central Government.  The current chairperson of the Commission is Ashok Kumar Gupta and the members are: Dr. Sangeeta Verma and Bhagwat Singh Bishnoi.

SOURCES

[i] WIKIPEDIA, https://www.wikipedia.org/ (last visited Dec 10, 2021).

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