New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) will soon start hearing complaints on anti-competitive activities, six years after it was mooted by the Indian government.
“Within a month, we would be able to enforce sections three and four of the (competition) Act. Draft regulations have been finalized and are being posted on website... 15 days time would be given for public comments,” commission chairman Dhanendra Kumar said.
Section 3 relates to anti-competitive agreements and section 4 deals with abuse of dominance. These two sections are soon expected to be notified.
The commission is empowered to consider cases that include mergers and acquisitions, cartelization, abuse of dominance, predatory pricing, price-fixing and anti-competitive practices. It is expected to ultimately replace the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission.
Even after the Competition Act was legislated in 2002 and amended in 2007, the commission could not start functioning due to the lack of a chairperson and six members as mandated by law. In February, the government appointed the chairman and two members to make the commission operational.
So far, the commission has been working towards sensitizing stakeholders about fair competition, but has not been not able to take up any cases, since the regulations, under the Act, are yet to be notified.