- The bill will be taken up in the upcoming Budget session of Parliament starting January 31, 2023. The bill was introduced in August 2022 and reworked based on recommendations from the Standing Committee on Finance.
- This is the first time the government is going in for comprehensive changes to the Competition law since it came into force in 2009.
- Some key proposals in the bill include: broadening the scope of anti-competitive agreements, reducing the time limit for approval of mergers & acquisitions, introducing a limitation period of three years for filing cases, and introducing a settlement & commitment framework.
- The government also proposed making reasonable use of intellectual property rights a valid defence against allegations of abuse of dominance, periodic revision of basic deal value threshold, and indexation to inflation.
- The inclusion of cartels under the proposed Settlement and Commitment framework and requiring the CCI to establish the ‘effects’ of anti-competitive conduct of dominant undertakings were also proposed.
- The Competition Act was passed into law in 2002. In 2022, the Indian government put forward plans to modify and add to the act. The proposed changes are still being considered and the government has recently added additional changes to those they had intended to implement in 2022.
Question:
Q.1 Which of the following is a key proposal in India's recently approved Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022?
a. Increasing the time limit for approval of mergers & acquisitions
b. Introducing a limitation period of three years for filing cases
c. Making reasonable use of intellectual property rights a valid defence against allegations of abuse of dominance
d. None of the above
a. Increasing the time limit for approval of mergers & acquisitions
b. Introducing a limitation period of three years for filing cases
c. Making reasonable use of intellectual property rights a valid defence against allegations of abuse of dominance
d. None of the above
