Re-Evaluating India's Green Channel Regime

The introduction of the Green Channel Route ("GCR") in 2019 marked a watershed moment for India's merger control landscape. The Competition Commission of India ("CCI") having witnessed a steady increase in the volume and complexity of combination applications sought to create an approval mechanism that would reduce regulatory burden for combinations posing no apparent risk of appreciable adverse effect on competition ("AAEC"). Until then, all combinations as per the prescribed thresholds had to pass through the rather tedious Form I or Form II filings even when they were clearly benign. The GCR offered a solution wherein a framework was made under which certain combinations would be deemed approved immediately upon filing without any waiting period subject to the self-certification by parties that no horizontal, vertical or complementary overlaps existed or existing between them or their respective groups and affiliates.