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India on Wednesday called for a phased, flexible and planned approach of global anti-trust cooperation to effectively overcome the challenges thrown up by increasing cross-border investigations and mergers. Inaugurating the 17th ICN annual conference in the Capital, P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law, Justice and Corporate Affairs, expressed the hope that constant dialogue and negotiations among the global competition fraternity would lead to evolution of "global anti-trust standards". The International Competition Network (ICN) is the only dedicated international body on competition law.
Nearly 520 delegates from 73 countries and 84 jurisdictions are attending the 17th edition of the ICN annual conference being organised by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in association with ICN. Chaudhary said it is now time that the naysayers of globalisation realise the flow of globalisation is irreversible despite the recent populist backlash and resurgence of protectionism.
"The world must come together to buck this trend and India's stand in terms of its preference for a multi-polar world is abundantly clear. We are also clear that the soft international architecture in the area of competition law and policy will have to muddle with this multi-polar reality," Chaudhary said. Multi-polarity and legal pluralism will predictably form essential features of the global governance of anti-trust, he said.
Chaudhary also highlighted that the architecture of the Indian competition law not only avoids an inconsistent application of the law, but also aligns with global anti-trust practices, and integrates seamlessly with a globalised law enforcement regime. Devender Kumar Sikri, Chairperson, Competition Commission of India, said in the last two-three years, there has been a rise in multi-jurisdictional mergers and competitive conduct extending beyond borders. "They are making international cooperation important for all of us. We strongly believe that with the increasing cross-border dimension of the world, we can't afford to operate in isolation. Businesses that live in an interdependent world do not stop," Sikri said.
The CCI Chairperson also highlighted that technological changes such as big data, the Internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain pose competition challenges. "While we reap benefits from them, we must also be ready to face challenges," he said. Sikri said CCI is committed to deliver on its goals of preserving the competition process in the market and protect the interest of consumers.
He said the conference was being held at a time when a slew of reforms had been initiated in India for laying the foundation of greater formalisation and digitalisation of the economy, creating the right institutional milieu for the markets to work as an instrument of growth, efficiency and inclusion. "Many legacy issues that hampered the market mechanism are fast fading away, providing a much larger canvas for the instrumentality of competition law," he said.
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