CII Media Releases

“CCI will enable e­filing from 1 October 2015” : Ashok Chawla, Chairman, Competition Commission of IndiaAug 21, 2015

“CCI is not just about ensuring compliance, but about ensuring fair play”

Mr Ashok Chawla, Chairman, Competition Commission of India announced that Competition Commission of India(CCI) would enable e­filing of documents from 1 October 2015. He was addressing the CII Annual Conference onCompetition Law and Practise held at Mumbai today. The CCI Chairman said the challenge of technology wassomething that the CCI was dealing with given the architecture of the Competition law; from aspects of e­governance(such as e­filing) to the growth of e­commerce, which has brought in a new set of challenges: whether norms of the CCIwhich were created for ‘brick and mortar’ should be applicable to ‘click and mortar’.

In his inaugural address, the CCI Chairman spoke about the role of the Competition Commission of India as a regulatorensuring that the Commission is very conscious of its role towards the users, consumers and enterprises. He said theCCI and its role would come into sharper focus in the current year which is expected to witness a 20 per cent increasein mergers and acquisitions as compared to the previous year.

Speaking from the aspect of ‘unfair competition’ to the aspect of ‘challenges of compliance’, the CCI Chairman touchedupon the linkage between non­compliance and penal provisions. “The CCI is not a quasi­judicial body, but a body ofexperts, and this sets apart its role as a regulator. It is not just about ensuring compliance, but rather about ensuringright ‘behavior’, of ensuring that compliance is done keeping the right ‘spirit’ in mind, and not just the text of the law. It isnot just about ensuring compliance, but about ensuring fair play,” he added.

Sounding a note of caution, Mr Chawla said that while issues small and big were equal before the CCI in terms of theseriousness with which it considered them, at the same time, there was an endeavor to ensure that the CCI did not endup becoming ‘another consumer forum’.

Addressing the Conference, Ms Archana Goyal Gulati, Adviser (FA), Competition Commission of India highlightedhow merger control is a tool for growth. She asserted how complete transparency and cooperation with industry werehallmarks of the Commission. She called for complete faith and trust by industry ensuring consultative process for allimportant frameworks being set up / amended by the CCI. Responding to industry concerns, Ms Gulati ensuredcomplete confidentiality of industry information and transactions being dealt with by the Commission.

Speaking at the Conference, Ms Zia Mody, Chairperson, CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs & SeniorPartner, AZB & Partners voiced industry perspective and concerns on merger control by way of CombinationsRegulations.Some of the issues she highlighted included need for continuation of the “de­minimis” exemption; revisitingthe thresholds under Section 5 of the Competition Act; need for clarification on definition of control; need for exemptionfor global transaction that have little/no territorial nexus with India; potential misuse of publication of details of a notifiedtransaction on the CCI website; and continuing possibility of pre­mature notifications due to non­clarity on trigger event.She asserted the importance of the role of CCI in the current scenario of economic growth leading to increase in thenumber of mergers and acquisitions.

Delivering the welcome remarks, Dr Ajit Ranade, Member CII Economic Growth & Investments Council;and Group Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group exclaimed that competition is not an end by itself, but leads tofaster economic development. He highlighted the aim of the Competition Commission which is not just to prevent abuseof dominance and unfair trade practices, but also to promote healthy competition and fair play.

The extremely interactive and well­attended Conference included two technical sessions during the day capturingspeakers’ thoughts on ‘Challenges to Compliance’ and ‘Industry Perspective on Merger Control.’

MumbaiAugust 21, 2015