The Competition Commission of India is to come up with well-defined guidelines for competition compliance and is to put them in the public domain for better awareness amongst corporates and various levels of management within companies.

"Compliance is like truth, and not a mathematical formula. Industry must develop this culture and encourage competition,'' said Ashok Chawla, Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India, while addressing a workshop organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 'Boosting Competition Compliance - Tackling Challenges'.

As Chawla said, "There are penalties and fines for non-compliance. Companies also lose credibility if found violating competition compliance. So, the costs of violation are extremely high. There are no formulas defining violations, but there are a host of factors derived from the behavioural aspects. India’s GDP has tripled in the two decades with the growth of businesses and hence, compliance is the need of hour."

With the objective of improving awareness and providing a platform to educate India Inc on the issues, CII has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs.

Zia Mody, Managing Partner at legal firm AZB & Partners, said while there was a need for strong compliance, there was also a need to treat each industry differently in the framework of competition compliance. In several countries there are incentives for adhering to compliance, which could be looked at for encouragement in India too, she added.

"There is a need for awareness on the issue. Marketing communications and big claims of companies can go against them. Exclusivity arrangements and dominance abuses would be closely watched," she added.

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