India has emerged as a pioneer of the global digital revolution. To keep the regulatory apparatus abreast of changing market dynamics, the Government introduced the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in August 2022. It was then referred to the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for further examination and stakeholder consultation. After adopting the suggestive amendments of the panel, the Bill was tabled in Parliament in February 2023 and subsequently passed by the Lok Sabha on March 29, 2023.

Key Changes 

This is the first amendment to the Competition Act, 2002 after a hiatus of almost 14 years since it came into force in 2009. In hindsight, it also testifies to the robustness of the Act in all these years. The proposed amendments, inter alia, include a change in the merger control regime with the introduction of a new deal value threshold, adoption of the material influence test for assessing ‘control’, and reduction in procedural timelines related to combination; introduction of settlement and commitment mechanism at par with international standards; adding the concept of ‘hub and spoke cartel’ to eliminate all possibilities of cartelization in the market; introducing the ‘global turnover’ test for determining the penalties for contravention of the Act. Some of the major amendments and their impact are discussed in the ensuing part.