Horizontal Anti-Competitive Agreement: A Critique

Ravish Ranjan, Chanakya National Law University

INTRODUCTION

The Indian constitution guarantees the fundamental right to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business2 within India; however people may tend to resort to practices which have an adverse effect on the market and consumer. One of the primary objectives of the Indian competition law is to maintain a healthy competition in the Indian market by preventing practices which have adverse effects on competition. The Competition Act achieves this by either prohibiting or regulating (in the case of consolidations) certain agreements which it considers anti-competitive.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969,3 which may be said to be in some ways the predecessor of the Competition Act, under Sec 33 deemed certain categories of agreements to be in relation to ‘restrictive trade practices’ and further provided for compulsory registration of such agreements in order to ensure control over such agreements.