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India’s antitrust law, The Competition Act, 2002, was fully constituted on March 1, 2009, replacing the Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969. The Competition Act monitors any economic activity that monopolizes competition within the market; it aims to protect consumers and small enterprises, and ensures the freedom of trade. The Act also regulates acquisitions, mergers, and combinations in India.
More About Anti Trust Law
- Many countries have broad laws that protect consumers and regulate how companies operate their businesses. The goal of these laws is to provide an equal playing field for similar businesses that operate in a specific industry while preventing them from gaining too much power over their competition.
- Simply put, they stop businesses from playing dirty in order to make a profit. These are called antitrust laws.
- Antitrust laws are statutes developed by governments to protect consumers from predatory business practices and ensure fair competition.
- Antitrust laws are applied to a wide range of questionable business activities, including market allocation, bid rigging, price fixing, and monopolies.
Famous Antitrust Cases in India
- An Indian trade group representing online vendors filed an antitrust case against Amazon in India, which follows other antitrust cases or expected probes against the retail behemoth in Canada, Europe and the United States, from both the federal and various states.
. They have alleged that the e-commerce giant offers preferential treatment to some retailers and brands whose steep discounts are driving independent retailers out of business.
- India’s antitrust body is looking into allegations that Alphabet Inc’s Google is abusing its market position to unfairly promote its mobile payments app in the country.
. The complaint alleges the U.S. tech giant more prominently showcases its Google Pay app inside its Android app store in India, giving it an unfair advantage over apps of competitors which hurts consumers.
. This is Google’s third major antitrust challenge in India. In 2018, the CCI fined Google $21 million for “search bias”, but a company appeal against that is pending.
. The CCI last year also started probing Google for allegedly misusing its dominant position to reduce the ability of smartphone manufacturers to opt for alternate versions of its Android mobile operating system.
