 "Ravneet Kaur")
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) will soon implement regulations for its Leniency Plus regime, incentivising companies to report cartelisation for public consultation, CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur (pictured) said on Tuesday.
Under Leniency Plus, a cartelist cooperating with CCI for leniency can disclose the existence of another cartel in an unrelated market during the original leniency proceedings, in exchange for an additional reduction in penalty.
The Leniency Plus regime was introduced in the new Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023, although several provisions of the Act are yet to be notified. The current Act already contains a leniency provision. The Leniency Plus model, providing the regulator with inside information about cartels, is recognised in countries such as the UK, US, Singapore, and Brazil.
“As and when we come up with any guidelines, we will conduct a public consultation,” said Kaur.
Kaur made these remarks during the curtain raiser for the 8th Brics International Competition Conference, scheduled from October 11-13, 2023. The conference will address emerging issues and challenges in competition enforcement in Brics countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa with discussions on Big Tech, and algorithms, challenges in merger controls, promoting soft law tools to create a pro-competitive environment in the markets. Brics joint documents including leniency programme & digital economy reports are also expected to be released. Regarding cooperation among Brics competition authorities, Kaur said, “While we consider cooperation in enforcement, coordinated action is not feasible.”
CCI is also planning a study on the artificial intelligence market to assess potential anti-competitive practices and explore ways to address them, including through self-regulation.
The antitrust watchdog has been investigating several cases involving Big Tech companies such as Google, Apple, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Kaur noted that the enquiry into the matter of Google’s alleged abuse of dominance in the smart television market, as well as the probe related to news publishers’ complaints against the search engine giant, is ongoing.
Several cases, including those related to anti-profiteering, remained pending at CCI due to a lack of quorum, requiring a minimum of three members.
Currently, CCI comprises four members who vote on competition issues, leading to concerns about possible deadlocks. However, Kaur observed, “CCI members collaborate effectively, and I do not anticipate any difficulties in the future.”
CCI has shared insights with the government on the need for ex-ante regulations and a digital competition law. Kaur emphasised that certain provisions in the new Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023, such as the deal value threshold, settlement, and commitment, will enable CCI to bring about market correction.
“Through the deal value threshold, we can address killer acquisitions, capturing transactions where the value exceeds ~2,000 crore, and the acquired enterprises have substantial business operations in India,” Kaur explained.
The term of the digital competition law committee has been extended until October 31, 2023.
