Breaking Monopolies, Building Markets: The Global Evolution Of Competition Law
Bhavya Sharma, Bharati Vidyapeeth New Law College, Pune
ABSTRACT
This paper traces the chronology and evolution of competition law in three distinct legal regimes- England, USA and India. It starts with the Statute of Monopolies of 1624 which is perhaps one of the first instances wherein there has been a challenge to the act of granting monopolies or trading rights to certain people. It, then, examines the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 which marked the dawn of modern competition law in USA wherein powerful corporations which had an industry monopoly came under scrutiny. The last part of the paper talks about the evolution of the law in India- from the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969, which was designed for a controlled economy to the Competition Act of 2002, which introduced a more modern and effective framework suited to a liberalised and globalised market.
Each of these acts was developed with the specific economic and political climate of the day in mind, however, the fundamental aim in each case is the same – to ensure no monopoly can develop to exploit consumers and to protect the consumer interest. The discussion in the paper also examines some of the cases and provisions covered by each piece of legislation in order to illustrate their practical application in action. As a whole, the series of acts represents the history of the evolution of the concept of fair competition during four hundred years starting from an attempt to limit the power of a monarch, continuing with busting the monopoly of industries and finishing with the regulation of mergers in the Internet age. The paper concludes that while the tools and contexts have changed, the underlying need for strong and fair competition law remains as relevant today as it ever was.
