Govt plans major amendments to Competition Act, may curtail CCI's powers

Multiple Benches of CCI instead of one centralised bench in Delhi likely

The government is planning major amendments to the Competition Act, which entail changing the definition of “relevant market” and altering the threshold for mergers and acquisitions.

Working groups within a committee are working on the details relating to these.

The committee is discussing changing the definition of an enterprise in the Act. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) decides penalties based on the turnover of the relevant market of an industry.

A source involved in the discussions said “the government feels that the current threshold for mergers and acquisitions to be exempt from the competition regulator’s approval is too low.