HC upholds CCI probe against Flipkart, Amazon

HC upholds CCI probe against Flipkart, Amazon

Part of: GS Prelims and GS – III – Economy

In news E-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart recently lost their legal battle in the High Court of Karnataka, as a division bench upheld the Competition Commission of India’s decision to conduct an investigation into whether they had entered into anti-competitive agreements in violation of the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002.

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. 
• Composition: 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. 
• Functions: 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.

News Source: TH