Addressing the inaugural session of the Conference held today, Chief Guest Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairperson, Competition Commission of India highlighted how the Commission has been guided by its larger goal of faster market corrections than penalising the firms through monetary penalties. He explained that the Commission in its recent interventions has taken cognizance of cooperation extended by parties during investigation and inquiry stage and refrained from imposing monetary penalties when the Commission was satisfied that a simple cease and desist order would suffice to attain market correction. Such accommodative stance of the regulator was devised to meet the extraordinary situation arising out of the global pandemic and was also subject to the specific facts and cooperative and reformed conduct exhibited by the parties. He acknowledged how the pandemic brings unimaginable crises to the globe impacting the economies and businesses. In crises like these, Competition Authorities have a paramount role in helping economies to get back on track.
Speaking of latest initiatives, Chairman stated that the Commission has amended the Combination Regulations to dispense the requirement of providing information on non-compete arrangements in Form I. The amendment intends to provide flexibility to the parties to the combination in negotiating non-compete clauses. The Commission’s Green Channel Route for automatic approval of combinations has received positive feedback from the businesses and industry in facilitating Ease of Doing Business.
Chairman stated that the New Age Markets characterised by e-Commerce have thrown challenges of newer proportion and nature. CCI market study on e-commerce with an objective to comprehend the business practices and contractual provisions in e-commerce and their underlying rationale and implication for competition has been very useful in this direction. The Commission has also launched a market study on the pharma sector while study on private equity investments is on the anvil. This will help identify the kind of shareholding rights available to common shareholders, the type of influence these rights provide, and the available safeguards in companies’ policies for mitigating competition concerns and at the same time creating enabling environment for MSME.
Sharing her views, Ms Inderpreet Sawhney, Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Infosys, stated that Regulators across the globe and in India have been supportive during the COVID-19 pandemic in dealing with the challenges arising from supply chain disruptions, remote working, data protection, cyber security, contractual obligations, cash flow issues and enabling support for complying with the Competition law issues. She especially acknowledged the initiatives of CCI in successfully responding to the pandemic at a very early stage. She stressed on the importance of establishing competition law compliance programs by corporates.
Addressing the Conference, Mr. Mihir Rale, General Counsel, Star and Disney India, stated that the Indian economy has been impacted by the pandemic and recovery of economic development may take time to resume. Competition policies play key role in mitigating the economic downturn caused by the pandemic and facilitate ease of doing business as envisioned by the Government. Mr Rale enumerated the need to encourage evolution of the digital economy while paving way for innovation to ensure economic development. He asserted the need for institutional framework for collaboration between the CCI as market regulator and the sectoral regulators that would go a long way in promoting and sustaining competition.
Earlier delivering the welcome remark Ms Zia Mody, Chairperson CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs & Co-Founder & Managing Partner, AZB & Partners commended the efforts of CCI in immediately responding to the pandemic and successfully facilitating online hearings, pre-filing consultation and mitigating the challenges around confidentiality issues and hoped the Commission to continue some of these even after the pandemic ends. She commended some of the recent decisions of CCI highlighting the right signals they will send out to the international community and encourage FDI in the country. Ms. Mody elaborated how the Commission has successfully enabled the Green Channel Route for facilitating seamless transactions. She also expected the CCI to issue more Guidance Notes for stakeholders to understand the mind of the regulator. This will help take forward the Government’s aim of improving ease of doing business in India.
4 December 2020
New Delhi