Rajya Sabha’s committee on subordinate legislation led by Milind Deora will review a scheme offered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in March 2024 allowing businesses to avoid anti-trust investigations by making commitments to change their conduct, two persons privy to the development said.
CCI’s commitment regulations, 2024 has been chosen for detailed examination and the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has sought a detailed background note on the scheme as well as a list of stakeholders for consultation from the corporate affairs ministry, one of the persons quoted above said on condition of not being named.
Under the commitment scheme, a party facing an investigation can commit to change its conduct in the market and if the offer is accepted by CCI, the probe will be dropped.
This enables early market correction as the other alternative—investigation, imposing penalties and protracted litigation would mean the anti-competitive practice in the market may persist till a final decision on the case is arrived at.
The ministry has also been asked to give information on the benefits of the competition law, impediments in its implementation and further scope for modifications.
The move to review the commitment scheme comes in the context of businesses seeking to make it effective retrospectively from 2022, when the competition law was amended to introduce the scheme.
CCI had called for public feedback on draft regulations on the commitment scheme in August 2023 and brought out the final regulations on 6 March 2024, when the procedure for filing commitment applications and for conducting the commitment proceedings became effective.
The first person quoted above said that stakeholders had sought a transition provision to give commitment opportunity for businesses from the time the provision was introduced in the Competition Act by way of the amendment introduced in 2023. However, this has not happened.
The House panel taking up the scheme for a review signals the scheme could undergo further tweaks, said the person.
Queries emailed to CCI and the corporate affairs ministry on Tuesday seeking comments for the story remained unanswered at the time of publishing.
CCI had also introduced another scheme in 2024 to facilitate quick market correction, which allows settlement of cases of anti-competitive behaviour by paying an amount ordered by the CCI.
Under this, defendants can apply for settlement after CCI’s Director General of Investigation gives his report on the case. CCI will decide on the application, weighing the nature, gravity and impact of the contraventions.
The amendments introduced to the competition law in 2023 were significant as they enabled commitments and settlements, introduced a new deal value threshold for regulating mergers and acquisitions involving Indian target companies and raised the scope of penalty for anti-competitive conduct which are now defined as a share of global turnover of the offender.
