The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 introduced significant
changes that strengthened the Competition Commission of India (CCI)
to deal with contemporary issues concerning competition in the
Indian markets. One such important amendment pertains to the
codification of the concept of “Hub and Spoke Cartel”
in the law. The Supreme Court of India, in Samir Agrawal v. CCI
(2021) 3 SCC 136, explained the “Hub and Spoke” Cartel.
In this model, a cartel requires its members, that is, “the
Spokes” to use a third-party platform or “the
Hub”, for the exchange of commercial information in order to
facilitate the cartelization.
More specifically, a Hub and Spoke Cartel can be defined as the
indirect exchange of information between two independent
undertakings which are horizontal competitors on supplier or
retailer level (“Spokes”), through another undertaking
operating at a different level of the production or distribution
chain (“Hub”). The Hub facilitates the coordination
