This article has been written by Mr. Aditya Raj Pandey, a 2nd Year BA LLB student from Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

INTRODUCTION 

Today, with the rapid development and modernization around the world, the malpractices increased a lot in order to gain more and more profits & income and hence to develop more. Now, it is evident that, through normal practice or good practices, any corporation or firm will take lot and lots of time to grow and develop, whereas if they start malpractices and derelictions then the growth will be little higher and therefore they earn huge amount in less period of time. Now, in order to prevent all the malpractices, several laws were formed by world organization and also huge number of countries passed and enacted the legislation on the same in order to prevent these practices and ensure that no one harms from all these. 

India which is rapidly growing and developing faced these kinds of issues a lot and therefore with the motive to tackle the same, drafted and enacted the law, named, Antitrust Law. It is a type of competition law, which contains several rules and regulations along with principles which particularly aimed to promote competition in the market and prevent the malpractices or monopolistic practices which in turn harms the consumer and along with this, it also restricts the new innovation which helps the market in one way or the other. Therefore, we can say that, antitrust laws are drafted and executed in such a way that it would restricts the companies from engaging in any such activities which in turn resists the competition in market in any manner. The competition can be restricted by price fixing, allocation and monopolization. Thus, it is also provided that those firms which violate the principles of Antitrust Laws then they will suffer from the punishments in the form of huge fines. Towards the end of the introduction part, we want to state that, by observation it is crystal clear that the chief motive of antitrust law is to promote fair competition and welfare of all. 

OBJECTIVES OF ANTITRUST LAW

As we saw in the earlier section, the definition of the antitrust laws and we also observe that today, there is huge need of these kinds of laws and regulations. Now, it is vital to note that, India also felt that need decade ago and passed the act by the name of Competition Act, in the year 2002. The act was passed in order to prevent anti-competitive practices in the market place and ensure the proper regulation of market. 

Apart from all these, there are many other objectives as well, which we will discuss in detail below: 

1. Promotion of fair competition – Antitrust laws around the world in such a manner that they can save the companies from engaging themselves in the unfair competition just for getting some more advantage and profits. It is drafted and enacted in such a manner that it will provide aid for prevention of unfair practices, which eventually higher the price and reduces the quality of product. These all harms the consumers of the particular products, which is not a fair deal for anyone. 
2. Protection of Consumers – As we earlier discussed that, by increasing the prices and reducing the qualities further, will eventually harms the consumers of the product, because they pay higher for this and in return the qualities they receive is not up to the mark. Therefore, the antitrust law comes into effect with the motive to protect the users or the customers in the market. 
3. Protection and Promotion of Innovations – Innovation is one the most essential element of any type or kind of market. But as we observe that because of malpractices by the stakeholders of the market, the innovation falls down which in turn harms the consumers. Also, it can be seen that, dominant corporations stops or prevents the new innovations in the market in order to reduce competition and therefore, the laws are made in order to stop or restrains these practices. 

Thus, all in all, we can say that the primary aim of Antitrust law is to maintain the perfect competition in the market which in turn benefits all the stakeholders of the market in positive manner. 

BENEFITS OF ANTITRUST LAWS

Antitrust Laws offers numerous advantages or benefits to all the stakeholders of the market in one form or the other. In this section, we will look upon the benefits of the law. 

1. As we already saw, that there are several motives of Antitrust laws, like promoting fair competition, protecting innovations along with the consumers, so we can consider the same in the advantages as well because all these things benefits the stakeholders of the market and hence become advantageous for all of them. So, in order to be more clear, the advantages are: 

1. Consumer Protection 
2. Ensuring Fair Competition
3. Protecting Innovation / Preserving Innovations. 

1. Now, apart from the above listed and explained advantages there are several other advantages as well which are quite different in nature. 

1. Encourage Economic Growth – Antitrust laws tried to maintain the fair competition and ensure that everyone gets benefitted so, in order to achieve these goals, the antitrust law eventually helps in growing economy and therefore encourage or boom the growth of economy which is advantageous for whole country as well as world. 
2. Sometimes, market failed due to same products and lowered quality. The antitrust laws ensures that innovation should be made in each and every sector and provides them free space to flourish as well which in turn protects the market from felling down brutally. Also, if the market becomes monopolistic in nature then, the quality of the products goes down which also becomes the chief reason for the falling down of market. Antitrust law ensures that these things didn’t happen and therefore, it protects the same. 

CRITICISM OF ANTITRUST LAW

Although there are various advantages of antitrust laws but vis a vis there are several criticisms as well which is attached with it. In this particular section we will analyse the criticism which gives the crystal clear view of whole Antitrust laws. 

1. At the very first place, it is so much hard to find and identify the anti competitive behaviour of any particular company. It is because, if the company starts carrying out the selling of products below the cost price, then it will be hard to find such companies and therefore eradicate these practices. 
2. Antitrust law generally creates burden on the companies as it is very lengthy process to handle the investigation as well as litigations related to antitrust issues. Apart from this, the same is costly as well for the corporations as well because the firms has to pay very high amount to the advocates in order to deal with the case under competition act for antitrust matters. 
3. Along with all these, anti competition law can be used a method to limit the investments from foreign companies which subsequently affects the customers because they did not get wide variety of products to choose in the market. 
4. Last but not the least, there are some issues as well, in the effective enactment of the antitrust law for promoting competition and protecting the consumers. Also, it is claimed that, in recent years, the law is little relaxed for the dominant form which in turn restricts the law to achieve its objective. 

CONCLUSION 

In summary, antitrust law can be considered as one of the best laws for today’s era as it has numerous advantages in the different sectors, like encouraging innovations, protecting consumers and many more. As we know that there are some cons as well which is associated with the law but we can say that there are more benefits of the law and hence it helps us a lot in maintaining a proper market competition. 

REFERENCES 

1. Analysis of Anti – Trust Laws, Sakshi Tiwari, Legal Services India, https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-9462-analysis-of-anti-trust-laws-.html 
2. The Significance of Variety in Antitrust Analysis, T.B. Leary, Federal Trade Commission, May 2000
3. Antitrust Laws and its Critics, AD Melamed, 2020
4. Economic Analysis and Antitrust Law, TD Morgan, Vanderbilt Law Review, 1980. 
5. Antitrust Laws, Monesh Mehndiratta, iPleaders, August 2022, https://blog.ipleaders.in/antitrust-laws/#:~:text=Antitrust%20laws%20are%20the%20laws,the%20Sherman%20Act%20was%20passed
6. Competition Law in India, Shraddha Jain, iPleaders, August 2022. 

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