Competition Commission of India

The Competition Act

• 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 M&A), 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 CCI, which consists of a chairperson and 6 members appointed by the Central Government.
• The Commission is also required to give 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 of the Commission

• To prevent practices having adverse effects on competition.
• To promote and sustain competition in markets.
• To protect the interests of consumers.
• To ensure freedom of trade.
• Proactive engagement with all stakeholders, including consumers, industry, government and international jurisdictions.
• Being a knowledge intensive organization with a high competence level.

Over the years, CCI has finely played both administrative and quasi-judicial roles to eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition. During the course of gaining stability, CCI has faced many challenges:

• implementation of competition law
• transition in antitrust issues of the current era
• changing business practices to examination of issues involving the digital economy and e-commerce. 

It has now become a necessity for CCI to move away from strategies used to examine a conventional business and include parameters of data accessibility, network effects and multi-sided markets for getting a better grip on new age areas like digital economy and e-commerce industry.