Samyukta Rawat, University Of Petroleum And Energy Studies
ABSTRACT
Following the privatisation and liberalisation that swept India in the early 1990s, it became evident that the Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was incapable of dealing with the competition aspect of the Indian economy. With the beginning of the globalisation era, Indian businesses began to face intense competition from both domestic and international players, necessitating a level playing field and an investor-friendly atmosphere. As a result, there was a need for competition laws to change their emphasis away from preventing monopolies and toward encouraging businesses to invest and expand, fostering competition while preventing market power abuse. The Indian Competition Law aims to control activities that have negative impact on market competition in India. It was enacted in 2002 with the aim of promoting competition in the flourishing Indian market and protecting it from anti-competitive corporate practices.
The paper focuses on the legal framework of Section 41 of the act, which forbids businesses from maintaining and abusing dominant position in a relevant market. Also, the paper is primarily concerned with circumstances in which more than one dominant undertaking exists in the same relevant market, which is known as collective dominance. In a slew of cases, Indian judiciary has held that the principle of collective dominance is beyond the scope of The Competition Act, 2002, thus making it incapable to curb anti-competitive behaviour in the country. Despite its critical importance in a competitive market like India, the competent principle of collective dominance remains absent from the Competition Law. The absence of “collective dominance” in the Indian competition regime has repeatedly prevented the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) from taking appropriate actions when necessary. Hence, the present paper articulates the clamant need for the recognition of collective dominance under Indian Competition Law.
Keywords: collective dominance, relevant market, abuse of dominance
