Because of the essential desire in its own structure and composition of the MRTP
Commission and the peculiar competition pertaining to (entry, pricing, scale of
business, its location etc.) the MRTP Act was unable to effectuate as expected
as they were also regulated by superfluous set of policies.
Objective of the Indian Competition Act 2002 is to ensure that there is fair
competition in the Market and which would benefit the consumer. The Competition
Act achieves this by either prohibiting or regulating (in the case of
consolidations) certain agreements which it considers anti-competitive.
Salient provisions:
The question we must ask today is that, Is the Competition law being
broken by us?
Speaking to people from rival businesses in your industry may seem like a
normal, everyday thing to do. And for most it's a perfectly innocent and
necessary part of business life. Are we discussing something which is not
innocuous to converse?
Business cartels occur when competitors get together and agree not to compete
against each other - for example, by fixing prices, dividing and sharing markets
between them or rigging bids for contracts so they decide who wins.
To Prevent such policies and practices which have an adverse effect on
constructive competition in the economy, Promote and help sustain healthy
competition in the market, look after the interest of the consumers, create
awareness and advocate for fair competition practices, and finally, ensure
freedom of trade in the market Competition Commission of India (CCI) was
established and it came up with the above objectives. Cartels (lobbying / unfair
associations) rip customers off and ultimately deprive them of a fair deal.
They also make it extremely difficult for other competing businesses that aren’t
part of the cartel to survive and grow.
The CCI ensure that the markets work for the benefits of the consumers, so the
welfare of the consumers is the main priority , economic activities are
promoting fair competition for the benefit of consumers which will result in
their advancement and affluence, the act will facilitate and control competition
practices and policies. The aim is the best possible utilization of resources by
embracing these policies.
Study shows misapprehensions that:
Source : David Harper, www.gov.uk/stopcartels
According to the study, civic should get awakened that breaking of law will
result in the loss of business as well as an individual’s profession.
The consequences for breaking competition law?
The regulating authorities of the state will be assisted and guided by the
competition commission of India. It is to carry out advocacy about competition
and competition laws. It objects to coach ministries, state governments,
regulators, and other authorities about the modern theories of competition. The
various training activities and consumer awareness advertisements in newspapers,
electronic media, etc., will facilitate them to educate. There is bonding
between good governance of a corporate and competitive business environment. The
good corporate governance seeks to meet the challenges of the competitive
business.
For Corporate, consumer is the king, and the welfare of consumer is the prime
focus for conserving free and genuine competition as the mandate of corporate
governance. The economic development is fail-safe with a healthy competition in
the market with cross border trade and consumer welfare. The proof, although
referring to experiences of developed countries, indicates substantial benefits
from the strengthening of the application of competition policy principles in
terms of "greater production, allocative and dynamic efficiency, welfare and
growth."
The Competition Act, 2002 however lays down two exceptions to the applicability of
the provisions relating to Anti-competitive agreements:
Types of Anti-Competitive Agreements are:
There has been increasingly global nature of the World economy and the thinning out of national economic boundaries. As the World economy becomes more globalized, an anti-competitive act of a firm may have effect not only in the country
where it is situated but even in other countries, where it has business activities.
As countries integrate more and more into the global economy, they become more
prone to the Anti-competitive practices operating on a global scale, or
originating outside the shores of the country but having effects on their domestic economics. In
recent years the international cartels have captivated much
attention. Competition agencies in the European Union and the United States have successfully
prosecuted over 40 such cartels that operated in their jurisdiction during the
1990s, and slapped heavy fines on several companies involved in such cartels.
Most countries exempt export cartels from their antitrust laws, as long as they do not have any Anti-competitive effect on the domestic market. In India, similar exceptions exist in both the outgoing MRTP Act, 1969 and the new Competition Act, 2002.
Cross-border predatory pricing also led to market distortions. Due to some striking similarities, cross-border predatory pricing is very
often equated with dumping. Therefore, an action is taken under anti-dumping
which is different from that underlying Competition Law because under
anti-dumping law it seeks to protect competitors and not competition.
Import cartels formed by domestic importers, or buyers and similar arrangements
(such as boycotts of, or collective refusals to deal with,
foreign competitors), may be a threat to maintaining competition in a market. In principle, a
national competition law may generally be able to tackle such market access barriers to foreign supplies and suppliers.
Foreign Direct Investment may increase competition in local markets,
particularly investment of Greenfield type. However, there is a possibility that
takeovers of domestic firms may take the markets increasingly concentrated, to
the extent of having one or a small number of dominant players. Moreover, a
single instance of cross border acquisition may seem to have no effect on
competition. But from a narrow national market perspective. it may lead to a
lessening of effective
competition in the market, if the acquirer has been a major exporter to the country.
Intellectual Property Rights may generate or contribute towards a position of
market power. The IP holders typically engage in licensing agreements with firms in
different countries. The territorial nature of property rights, in such
agreements,
means that frequently the national law enables them to be used by rights holders in order to prevent parallel imports. Around
patent cross licensing schemes, it has been observed in many cases that cartels
were formed.
Extraterritorial application of domestic competition law has created conflicts of
jurisdictions and tensions among the nations concerned. Although there is
a possibility of such conflicts and tensions with regard to the application of competition
laws of other jurisdiction such as the European Community.
Conclusions Drawn:
Anti-Competition law helps prevent negative effect on consumers because their
existence results in higher prices and restricted supply, there was a need to
shift the focus from curbing monopolies to promoting competition both internal
and external. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
has made the detection and prosecution of lobbies one of its priority policy
objectives.
Until now, there are no firmly established principles of international
law that would effectively resolve the issues arising from extraterritorial application of
competition law. Efforts will continue to establish jurisdictional principles. Anticompetitive
agreements, particularly hardcore alliances, harm consumers in developed, as
well as in developing countries. When there is a dearth in competition in the
industrial sectors, it will definitely lessen competitiveness in the long run,
which will not have a positive impact on the country’s economic growth.
Written By: Debbrat Banik
Email: [email protected]
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