Revamping Of The Indian Competition Act- Issues & Challenges

The Government of India (GoI) introduced the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (2022 Bill) on 5 August 2022 in Lok Sabha to overhaul the competition law in India. The 2022 Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (Committee) for its examination. The said Committee deliberated on the same, and suggested several changes and made a number of recommendations in its Report of 13 December 2022. While some of these suggestions have been incorporated in the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (2023 Bill), unfortunately many concerns still exist and/ or new challenges emanate from the proposed changes.

Penalty on Global Turnover:

Under the existing framework of the competition law, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is empowered under Section 27(b) of the Competition Act, 2002 (Act) to impose a penalty which may be up to 10% of the average turnover for the last three preceding financial years in cases pertaining to violation of vertical