Competition Commission of India (CCI) will soon publish regulations on settlement and commitment to operationalise the recent amendments effected on this front in the Competition Act, 2002, its Chairperson Ravneet Kaur said on Friday.

“We will soon issue the regulations on settlement and commitment”, Kaur said at the 96th Annual General Meeting of FICCI here.

Two separate draft regulations for settlement and commitment had already been issued for public and stakeholder comments. 

The fair trade regulator had given 21 days window ( August 24 to September 13) for stakeholders to submit their written comments.

In competition law jurisprudence, “commitment” refers to a process where a company under investigation offers to change its business practices to address the concerns raised by the competition authority. This can lead to the closure of the investigation without a formal finding of infringement. 

On the other hand, “settlement” typically involves a negotiated agreement between the competition authority and the company, often resulting in the company admitting to the alleged infringement in exchange for reduced fines or penalties. 

Both commitment and settlement aim to resolve competition law concerns efficiently and without the need for a lengthy legal process.

Kaur also said that the role of CCI is not only to be a watchdog but facilitate business process, promote competition , protect consumer interest and foster innovation. 

“Our role is all across the spectrum. Our approach is not to say “we caught you” and punish you. CCI is only keen to ensure fair competition in the market. We are keen on protecting consumer welfare. CCI also wants to have business friendly environment (for instance we introduced green channel route)”, she added.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

Kaur also said that CCI would soon embark on a market study on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and understand how competition will get affected. 

CCI Chief also made it clear that competition watchdog does not want to hurt the startup ecosystem in India in anyway. “Our endeavour will be to promote competition in such a manner that Startups will be able to come up with new applications, new developments, new software and they are given time to grow”, she said.

CCI would closely look at gatekeeper platforms taking on dominant role and undertaking anti-competitive practices.

REGULATIONS

Kaur said that CCI is in the process of rolling out rules and regulations for various amendments under the Competition (Amendment )Act 2023, which got notified in April this year, so as to operationalise them.

CCI is aware that it should not in any way become a roadblock in the development process of the country, she added.

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