ABSTRACT

The competition law regime in India plays a crucial role in ensuring a fair and competitive market by preventing anti-competitive practices, promoting consumer welfare, and fostering economic efficiency. Governed primarily by the Competition Act, 2002, and enforced by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the law aims to curb monopolistic behavior, cartels, abuse of dominant positions, and anti-competitive agreements. The Act replaced the outdated Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act, 1969, aligning India’s competition policies with global best practices. Over the years, the CCI has actively investigated and penalized companies engaged in price-fixing, bid-rigging, and unfair trade practices, ensuring a level playing field for businesses. However, despite its significant progress, the competition law framework faces challenges such as delays in adjudication, evolving digital market complexities, and the need for stronger enforcement mechanisms. The emergence of digital monopolies, e-commerce dominance, and data-driven competition concerns necessitates a dynamic regulatory approach. Recent amendments and proposed reforms aim to enhance the CCI’s powers, introduce settlement mechanisms, and expedite decision-making processes. This study critically examines the effectiveness of India’s competition law regime, its impact on various industries, and the need for further refinements to address modern economic challenges. Strengthening regulatory enforcement, ensuring better coordination with sectoral regulators, and adapting to the evolving market landscape will be essential in making India’s competition law more robust and efficient.

1.    GENERAL OVERVIEW

At this point, it is noteworthy to refer to a statement by Adam Smith that “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.”

In the light of the above statement, it is very well clear and understood that competition is the lifeblood of the economy. In other words, it can be said that the economy of a country moves on the wheels of competition. Therefore, the role of competition law is not to restrict the competition in the market but to prevent practices that restrict fair competition in the market. The competition law should aim at proving a level playing field to all the market players to enter and exit the market by maintaining healthy and fair competition in the market.

In India, the Constitutional framework provides for the “fundamental right to freedom of trade” with certain enumerated restrictions on this right. Also, the legislative framework also provides that the agreements in restraint of trade are void because they restrict the freedom of the contracting parties. Nevertheless, the selling of goodwill of a business is an exception to this rule. Therefore, the rights are not absolute[1] in nature but it is restricted based on the legislative framework.

So, to better understand the competition[2] law regime in India, it becomes very pertinent to trace the overall journey that prompted India to depart from the MRTP Act to the Competition Act to ensure competitiveness in the market and also make a comparison between old and new competitive regime in India[3]

[1]Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Vol 1, Book 1, Chap 10, 1776).

[2]The Constitution of India, art. 19.

[3]The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (Act 9 of 1872), s. 27.