Know About The Competition Law And The Role Of Competition - LPT Lucknow

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Competition law is an area of law that promotes or seeks to preserve competition in the marketplace by regulating anticompetitive behavior by businesses. The purpose of this area of law is to promote free and fair competition. Simply put, "competition" means the activity or state of striving to gain or maintain something by defeating or being superior to others.

 The term "competition" usually refers to a market situation in which companies or sellers independently seek the favor of buyers to achieve a specific business goal. Companies and firms must refrain from anti-competitive business practices. The benefits of a perfect market are threefold: allocative efficiency, which ensures efficient resource allocation; production efficiency, which ensures that production costs are kept to a minimum; and dynamic efficiency, which encourages innovative practices.

Competition law in India

The history of competition law in India dates back to the 1960s, when the first competition law, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act (MRTP), was enacted in 1969. However, after the 1991 economic reforms, this law proved to be outdated in light of international economic developments and in many respects, and a new law was enacted in 2003 in the form of the Competition Act, 2002. The Competition Commission of India is a quasi-judicial body established to enforce the provisions of this Act throughout India and to prevent activities that adversely affect competition in India.

The various objectives of the Competition Act are:

1. prevention of practices that adversely affect competition;

2. promoting and maintaining competition in the markets;

3. protect the interests of consumers; and

4. ensuring freedom of trade for other market participants in India.

The role of competition lawyers

Competition lawyers usually act on behalf of large international companies, as these organizations have the greatest ability to influence competition in the market. They also advise new entrants, for example, when their access to the market may be blocked by competitors. The role of these lawyers is to respond to investigations by competition authorities, handle court cases, and advise on day-to-day commercial and compliance issues. They also defend companies accused of price-fixing in secret cartels. The competition lawyer's job is to use argument and economic evidence to prove that competition will not be harmed by the merger. Other tasks include:

1. advising on merger control and filing applications;

2. investigations of abuse of a dominant position;

3. antitrust investigations and related litigation;

4. analysis of commercial contracts and licensing and distribution agreements;

5. analysis of sector-specific policies and market studies to identify competition concerns;

6. overlap between competition law issues and intellectual property rights;

7. competition law compliance and training;

8. consulting and providing strategies for antitrust risk management.