Introduction
Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of the Government of India. Apart from being a statutory body, the Competition Commission is also a quasi-judicial body which is not found in the Indian constitution but it is created by law. Its main objective is to promote clean competition among industrial bodies by eliminating monopolies in India.
Establishment
Today’s era is the era of privatization, globalization and liberalization, so in this modern period the need for more production was felt for the consumers and for this it was necessary to curb monopolistic tendencies. Hence, The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 [MRTP Act] in India was abolished and a Commission was established on 14 October 2003 under the Competition Act in India (2002), known as the Competition Commission of India.
Formation
The Competition Commission of India has a Chairman and 2 to 6 members. Its headquarters has been established in New Delhi. The Central Government has jurisdiction over this commission. The first president of the CCI was Dhanendra Kumar and currently, its president is Ashok Gupta and its current secretary is PK Singh.
Powers and Functions of CCI
1. End monopoly
In a monopoly economy, prices are determined by the company. In this type of economy, consumers do not get the convenience of selection, so they have to buy the product at the same price that the company determines on their own. Therefore, ending a monopoly is very important to bring freedom in the market.
2. Equal opportunity to all
The Commission tries to make sure that small and big industries cannot get along with any other industry. Therefore, all of them have been given a complete exemption to manufacture the product and sell their product in the market. So that full competition can be promoted in the market and no one is discriminated against.
On the one hand, the main task of the Competition Commission of India is to examine anti-competitive agreements and monopoly related matters and mergers that try to limit competition. If CCI feels that it is hindering competition, it also listens to its decisions in those cases and it also has the right to impose a fine on any company.
4. Advice to the Central Government
Competition Commission of India also provides assistance to the Central Government on issues related to competition. So that the Central Government can make necessary amendments to the Act to make competition clean.
5. Promoting public awareness
This Commission encourages competition issues and also provides awareness to the general public to make them aware of their rights and exploitation against them and also to exchange adequate information related to competition.
6. Protecting the interests of consumers
This Commission protects the interests of consumers by promoting competition as increased competition will lead to product development in the market and by increasing the product, the consumer will be able to easily consume the goods he needs at an affordable price. This will make it easier for him to select items and CCI also takes care that no person can be exploited.
7. To provide compensation
The Competition Commission of India also provides compensation to companies to provide opportunities to every industry including participating in the competition.
8. Follow economic activities
The Commission also pursues economic activities for fair and healthy competition, with the aim of making India’s economy possible to grow and to accelerate its growth rate.
9. Ensure trade freedom
Along with giving equal opportunity to all traders in India, CCI also works to ensure business freedom so that everyone in the market gets the right to trade and no company can establish a monopoly on any product.
Section 41
Director-General to investigate contravention
(1) The Director-General shall when so directed by the Commission, assist the Commission in investigating into any contravention of the provisions of this Act or any rules or regulations made thereunder.
(2) The Director-General shall have all the powers as are conferred upon the Commission under sub-section (2) of section 36.
(3) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (2), sections 240 and 240A of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), so far as may be, shall apply to an investigation made by the Director-General or any other person investigating under his authority, as they apply to an inspector appointed under that Act.
1[Explanation.–For the purposes of this section,–
(a) the words “the Central Government” under section 240 of the Companies Act,1956 (1 of 1956) shall be construed as “the Commission”;
(b) the word “Magistrate” under section 240A of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) shall be construed as “the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi”.]
Important steps were taken by the Competition Commission of India
- The biggest step taken by the Competition Commission of India was in 2012. In 2012, the Commission found 10 cement companies guilty of price fixing by forming associations and fined them 6000 crores.
- On May 26, 2014, the Commission imposed a fine of Rs 10 million on google USA and google India because it was alleged that Google has misbehaved with its position by Google to discriminate against the scientists who were acted upon by DG but Google was unable to establish cooperation with DG. The CCI admitted that google could not prove the allegation leveled against it, hence the commission was fined 10 million.
- The Competition Commission of India imposed a fine of Rs 522.4 million on 29 November 2017 on BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket). The reason for which CCI stated in its decision that
-BCCI has taken advantage of its position to try to limit competition when conducting IPL (Indian Premier League) tournaments.
For IPL, BCCI has granted exclusive media rights to broadcast the IPL matches to a single TV channel called Sony tv for 10 years which has limited competition.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the Competition Commission of India is an innovation in the Indian economy that protects the interests of consumers and helps to bring about a healthy, fair and free competition between industries, thereby ending the monopoly right and everyone gets equal opportunities for development.
References
http://www.mca.gov.in/MinistryV2/cci.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_Commission_of_India
This Article is Authored by Rukshana Badar, 2nd Year BA LLB Student at Maharishi Dayanand University.
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