Govt to introduce Competition Amendment Bill with key changes to existing law

A parliamentary panel led by BJP MP Jayant Sinha had suggested changes to the amendment bill in Dec 2022

The government is set to introduce the Competition Amendment Bill, which will make key changes to the existing provisions of the Competition Act, of 2002, CNBC TV-18 reported on February 8.

The bill was first brought in August last year but was subsequently sent to a parliamentary committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Jayant Sinha for revisions.

As per the amendment law, turnover would mean the global turnover derived from all products and services by a person or an enterprise, instead of the domestic turnover, the news channel said.

Accordingly, the penalty for violations will be levied on global turnover instead of domestic turnover, the report added.

The parliamentary panel had proposed to the corporate affairs ministry in December that the timeline for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to form a prima-facie opinion on a case be increased to 30 days instead of 20 days, as originally proposed in the legislation.

The government has accepted the suggestion made by the committee, the report said.

As per the amendment bill, the CCI will have to decide on merger and acquisition applications in 150 days, instead of 210 days at present.

In the bill, the ministry has proposed the introduction of a 'Settlement and Commitment framework to reduce litigations' and incentivise parties in an ongoing cartel investigation in terms of lesser penalty to disclose information regarding other cartels.

An application for settlement can be filed only after receipt of the investigation report and before passing the final order by CCI as may be specified by the regulations.

The legislation will make amendments to the Competition Act 2002, which was enacted in to replace the erstwhile law on monopolies and restrictive trade practice.

It will be the first time since the enforcement of the Competition Act in 2009 that amendment will be made to the Act. The Act was brought in 2002 and subsequently, it underwent amendments in 2007 and 2009. In May 2009, the antitrust provisions of the law came into force and two years later in May 2011, CCI started screening mergers and acquisitions.

With PTI inputs