Competition Commission Of India Publishes The Draft Lesser Penalty Regulations

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. On October 16, 2023, the Competition Commission of India ("CCI") published the draft CCI (Lesser Penalty) Regulations¹ ("Draft LPR") inviting public comments. Relevant stakeholders can submit their comments with the CCI, till November 6, 2023.² The Draft LPR has been published pursuant to the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023³ ("Amendment Act")⁴ which inter alia introduced a 'leniency plus'⁵ regime. Although the Amendment Act introduced the 'leniency plus' regime, such provisions are yet to be notified as they require supporting regulations to enumerate the modalities for their implementation. As such, the Draft LPR, in addition to ensuring implementation of the provisions pertaining to the 'leniency plus' regime, will also replace the CCI (Lesser Penalty) Regulations, 2009⁶ ("LPR").⁷