Competition regulator in India
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the chief national competition regulator in India. It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 to promote competition and prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. The CCI looks into cases and investigates them if the same has a negative impact on competition.
CCI also approves combination under the act so that two merging entities do not overtake the market.
The commission was established on 14 October 2003. It became fully functional in May 2009 with Dhanendra Kumar as its first chairman. The current Chairperson of the CCI is Ravneet Kaur, who was appointed to the role in 2023.
The Competition Act, 2002.
The idea of Competition Commission was conceived and introduced in the form of the Competition Act, 2002 by the Vajpayee government. A need was felt to promote competition and private enterprise especially in the light of 1991 Indian economic liberalisation.
The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007, follows the philosophy of modern competition laws. The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
The objectives of the act are sought to be achieved through the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which has been established by the Central Government with effect from 14 October 2003. CCI consists of a chairperson and six members appointed by the Central Government. It is the duty of the commission to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.
The commission is also required to give an opinion on competition issues on a reference received from a statutory authority established under any law and to undertake competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues.
Objectives.
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"The main objective of competition law is to promote economic efficiency using competition as one of the means of assisting the creation of market responsive to consumer preferences. The advantages of perfect competition are three-fold: allocative efficiency, which ensures the effective allocation of resources, productive efficiency, which ensures that costs of production are kept at a minimum and dynamic efficiency, which promotes innovative practices."
 Supreme Court of India Judgment in Civil Appeal No. 7999 of 2010 pronounced on 9 September 2010
Preamble to the Competition Act.
An Act to provide, keeping in view of the economic development of the country, for the establishment of a Commission to prevent practices having adverse effect on competition, to promote and sustain competition in markets, to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets, in India, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
To achieve its objectives, the Competition Commission of India endeavors to do the following:
Composition.
The commission comprises a chairperson and not less than two and not more than six other members appointed by the Central Government. Ravneet Kaur is the current chairperson of the CCI. The members of the Competition Commission of India are:
References.
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