Monopolistic Trade Practices :
Section 2(i) of the Act defines(in a nutshell) a monopolistic trade practice as a trade practice which has or is likely to have the effect of :- i) maintaining the prices of goods or charges of services at unreasonable levels by limiting, reducing or other wise controlling the production, supply or distribution of such goods or services;
ii) unreasonably preventing or lessening competition in the production, supply or distribution of goods or services;
iii)causing deterioration in the quality of goods or provision of services or limiting technical development or capital investment in goods or services to the common detriment ;
iv)preventing or lessening competition by adoption of unfair or deceptive methods in the production, supply or distribution of goods or services. Section 10 of the MRTP Act empowers the MRTP Commission(MRTPC) to inquire into such trade practices upon reference made to it by the Central Govt or on an application by the Director General or upon its own knowledge and information.
The very mention of the word Monopolistic Trade Practices reminds one of the school lessons in economics which always upheld the importance of free and fair competition as being a sine qua non for growth of business and enterprise in the country.
These primary lessons stressing the importance of competition cannot be overlooked as mere rituals of teaching the basics of economics since today the global laws are continually striving to curb anti-competitive trade practices or in other words the menace of monopolistic trade practices. India is in the process of evolving a full fledged law curbing such trade practices in the form of the Competition Bill 2001 which is likely to take the shape of a full fledged Competition Law in the current session of the Parliament.
The thrust of the Competition Law would be to check the abuse of dominance or in other words the curbing of the monopolistic and restrictive trade practices which are highly detrimental to public interest.! Also the interest of free development of business. The MRTP Act 1969 which presently regulates trade practices in the country also seeks to curb monopolistic trade practices.
Section 31 of the Act lays down the procedure for the conduct of investigation into such trade practices and powers of the Central Govt to curb such trade practices. Section 32 states that all monopolistic trade practices ahall be deemed to be opposed to public interests except where such trade practices have the approval of any law or the central govt .
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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In the year 2021, we wrote about 1000 Inspirational Women In India, in the year 2022, we would be featuring 5000 Start Up Stories.