UPSC Articles
Competition Commission of India (CCI)
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Statutory Bodies
In news: The Union Cabinet has approved the Memorandum on Cooperation (MoC) between Competition Commission of India (CCI) and Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC).
- It will promote and strengthen cooperation in the matter of Competition Law and Policy and will enable CCI to emulate and learn from the experiences of its counterpart in Japan
About Competition Commission of India (CCI)
- It is a statutory body established in 2003 and became fully functional in 2009.
- It is responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India.
- The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises.
- The Act regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and Merger and acquisition), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
- CCI consists of a Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
- Eligibility: Person should be qualified to be a judge of a High Court, or, has special knowledge of, and professional experience of not less than fifteen years in international trade, economics, commerce, law, finance.
- It is the duty of the Commission to:
- eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition
- promote and sustain competition.
- protect the interests of consumers.
- ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.
Recent Judgements of CCI
- Cement companies: CCI imposed a fine of ₹63.07 billion (US$910 million) on 11 cement companies for cartelisation in June 2012.
- BCCI: CCI imposed a penalty of ₹522 million (US$7.6 million) on the BCCI in 2013 for misusing its dominant position.
- Telecos: CCI ordered a probe into the functioning of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) following a complaint filed by Reliance Jio against the cartelization by its rivals Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea cellular.
- Google: The commission ordered an antitrust probe against Google for abusing its dominant position with Android to block market rivals.
