Though the Competition Commission of India (CCI) was equipped with the requisite quorum as early as September, 2023, the resolution of the cases by the watchdog hasn’t gathered much pace. According to sources, as many as 20 cases are pending with the board of the anti-trust regulator waiting for its orders. Reports on all these cases have been filed by the CCI’s investigative arm.
The high number of unresolved cases is due to a variety of reasons, including compliance delays from the companies who have been probed for alleged anti-competitive practices.
The pending cases involve those in sectors such as big tech, pharmaceuticals, cement and railways, the source said. “Over the past few months, CCI has been operating at full quorum. So they have a reasonable bandwidth to handle more cases and issue orders without delay,” said another source. At present, CCI has three members and a chairperson Ravneet Kaur who was appointed in last May.
“It’s a big number of pending cases. The situation has improved now at the commission from last year when it wasn’t able to refer cases for investigation to the DG (director general) due to lack of quorum,” said a former senior CCI official, requesting not to be identified.
After the investigation gets over, it takes about 4-6 months for the commission to issue orders against erring companies. Initially, the commission sends copies to the parties involved. This is followed by listening to the parties which is a time-taking process. “At times, the advocates of the companies try to delay the process due to their personal interests,” said the former CCI official.
The primary mandate of CCI is to look into the cases of abuse of dominant position, cartelisation, mergers & acquisitions (M&As) and vertical restraints. Due to the piling up of M&A cases in the recent years, the CCI has eased the norms on that front wherein the maximum time to approve deals has been reduced from 210 days to 150 days. Similarly, it has brought in green channel mechanism which automatically approves certain M&As that causes no adverse effect on the competition.
Even after issuing orders, the CCI is facing roadblocks, as it is being drawn into litigation. The commission has been fighting plenty of cases in different legal forums (Supreme Court of India, NCLAT), including against tech giants like Google and Amazon who have challenged its orders imposing hefty penalties.