Competition Commission to inherit 1,422 MRTPC cases

Rashmi Das

New Delhi, Aug 21: THE proposed Competition Commission of India (CCI) will be inheriting nearly 1,422 cases from the Monopolies Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act.

The proposed law clearly states that the cases pending before the Monopolies Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) would be transferred to the CCI.

Now with the Competition Bill being referred to the standing committee of the Parliament, the MRTPC has begun a reality check on the number of cases to be referred to the proposed panel.

According to a senior MRTPC official, since the mandate of the new dispensation will be to encourage competition rather than to curb monopolies, only restrictive trade practices cases (RTPs) would be referred to the commission while consumer complaints, particularly in the area of unfair trade practices, would be referred to the consumer courts. The official pointed out that at present there are 1,273 cases pertaining to unfair trade practices.