The Legal 500 > Asia Pacific > India > Antitrust and competition

Domestic clients and multinational corporations regularly approach Khaitan & Co LLP  for its market-leading competition and antitrust practice, which covers the full range of transactional and contentious issues. Manas Kumar Chaudhuri is the go-to name for defending anti-competition and abuse of dominance claims, while he and Sagardeep Rathi have recently guided clients through a large number of leniency applications. The practice has recently expanded with the addition of Rahul Singh and the promotion of Anisha Chand to the partnership, which has bolstered the merger control offering. The client list is wide-ranging, though a particular expertise in the complex field of pharmaceuticals is cited.

Key fields of expertise for L&L Partners Law Offices’s 'dependable' antitrust and competition practice include acting on abuse of dominance and cartelisation disputes for clients in a diverse range of sectors including pharmaceuticals, shipping, food, auto parts and construction. GR Bhatia and Abdullah Hussain regularly appear before the CCI on matters pertaining to the developing legal field of leniency applications. Kanika Chaudhary Nayar is noted for her expertise in developing competition compliance frameworks — including preparations for dawn raids — for clients in sectors such as steel, cement, broadcasting and film distribution.

Owing to Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co being involved with the Indian leg of some of the most significant recent global deals (for the likes of Walmart and Monsanto), the firm’s competition lawyers handled some of the most complex and strategically important Phase I and Phase II merger filings before the CCI. Go-to names in this field include Shweta Shroff Chopra and Aparna Mehra. Alongside stand-out merger control work, professionals such as Harman Singh Sandhu and Naval Chopra regularly handle high-profile litigation involving abuse of dominance, anti-competitiveness and cartelisation (and the related leniency applications). Managing partner Pallavi Shroff regularly contributes to the development of national competition policy.

AZB & Partners  provides cross-practice support to a roster of domestic and multinational clients when competition and antitrust issues arise. On the merger control front, the firm successfully obtained Phase I clearance from the CCI for a number of significant transactions across a breadth of industries form telecoms, steel, IT and energy to emerging sectors such as new media and digital payments. Of particular note is Samir Gandhi and of counsel Rahul Rai’s successful handling of Tata Steel’s acquisition of Bhushan Steel under the nascent Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The team provides advice on potential CCI and Director General investigations and also acts on litigation concerning abuse of dominance and cartelisation claims. The practice was strengthened by the arrival of competition lawyer Bharat Budholia, who was previously at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

The merger control expertise of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ competition practice significantly bolsters the firm’s market-leading transactional presence; professionals such as Avaantika Kakkar and Anshuman Sakle regularly appear before the CCI on complex merger filings including Phase II applications for multinationals in sectors such as retail, FMCG, telecoms, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals and energy. Enforcement instructions comprise abuse of dominance and cartelisation investigations and relevant turnover applications in the upper courts. The firm is also known for assisting clients during dawn raids by the CCI.

The significant bench strength of Economic Laws Practice (including noted individuals Suhail Nathani and Ravisekhar Nair) is well placed to act on high-profile competition disputes before the CCI, COMPAT and NCLAT. Multinational and domestic clients in sectors such as IT, pharmaceuticals, energy, media and automobiles frequently instruct the team on disputes concerning anti-competitive breaches, abuse of dominance and cartelisation, in both defence and initiation proceedings. The team also provides expertise on the merger control side (including Phase II applications) as well as advising on competition compliance audits.

IndusLaw has bolstered its antitrust and competition offering with the recruitment of Rahul Goel and Anu Monga from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, who together are go-to names in the nascent field of relevant turnover applications. Current mandates for the competition team include representation before the CCI, NCLAT and upper courts on matters relating to abuse of dominance, cartelisation and anti-competitive allegations. The firm handles merger control matters for a range of clients in the e-commerce, tech, telecoms, pharmaceuticals and financial services industries, among others.

Kochhar & Co.’s antitrust and competition team provides merger control and compliance advice to a roster of multinational clients in the (among others) oil and gas, automotive, financial services and electronics sectors. The firm makes regular appearances before the CCI and upper courts to defend clients on allegations of cartelisation, abuse of dominance, collusive bidding and anti-competitiveness. Practice head Piyush Gupta also helps with establishing dawn raid and whistleblower programmes.

Advaita Legal advises clients on issues such as pre-merger notifications, anti-competitive agreements and exclusive supply and distribution agreements. Prior contentious instructions involved cartelisation, price fixing, abuse of dominance and bid rigging.

Dua Associates has worked on matters including merger controls, abuse of dominance and allegations of cartelisation. Clients include Dow Chemical Company and Power Grid Corporation of India.

Disputes firm Gaggar & Partners is retained by the CCI to prosecute competition matters before the Directorate General; recent issues involved representation before the NCLAT on cartelisation and retail price maintenance issues. Vaibhav Gaggar is also instructed to defend constitutional challenges to the competition regime. On the other side, the firm represents a range of clients — from sectors such as automotive, pharmaceuticals and real estate — before the CCI on anti-competitive matters, leniency applications, abuse of dominance and collusive bidding cases.

The corporate lawyers at Gagrats are able to advise on general antitrust and competition matters arising from M&A transactions and distribution and licensing agreements in sectors including FMCG, engineering, pharmaceuticals, energy and aviation.

Link Legal - India Law Services leverages its market-leading aviation expertise to act on some of the leading competition matters in that sector. Ongoing cases involve Director General investigations and CCI proceedings concerning price fixing and cartelisation.

Phoenix Legal ’s antitrust and competition offering provides merger control advise to corporate clients for M&A transactions, joint ventures, distribution and supply arrangements and asset-purchase transactions.

Owing to the departure of former competition head Vinod Dhall to Platinum Partners, newly promoted partner P Ram Kumar now heads the competition practice at Talwar Thakore & Associates . Kumar specialises in merger control mandates and cartelisation and abuse of dominance cases.