The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a statutory body and the chief national competition regulator in India, established under the Competition Act, 2002. The Commission was officially formed on October 14, 2003, and became fully operational in May 2009, functioning under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Its creation was based on the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee and was necessitated by the economic liberalization of 1991, which required a shift from controlling monopolies to promoting market competition. The Competition Act, 2002, effectively replaced the outdated Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act (MRTP Act), 1969, which focused on curbing monopolies based on size rather than conduct.
The CCI's mechanism is built on three pillars outlined in the Competition Act, 2002. Section 3 prohibits anti-competitive agreements, such as cartels, price-fixing, and bid-rigging, which are presumed to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition (AAEC). Section 4 prohibits the abuse of a dominant position by an enterprise, though holding a dominant position itself is not illegal. Sections 5 and 6 regulate combinations (mergers, acquisitions, and amalgamations) that exceed specified asset or turnover thresholds to prevent them from causing an AAEC. Appeals against the CCI's orders are heard by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which replaced the earlier Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) in 2017.
The law has recently undergone significant change with the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023, which introduced a new deal value threshold requiring CCI approval for transactions exceeding INR 2,000 Cr if the target has substantial business operations in India. The 2023 Amendment also reduced the maximum timeline for the CCI's review of combinations from 210 days to 150 days and formalized a lower threshold of control by including the concept of "material influence". Additionally, the amendment introduced provisions for settlements and commitments for anti-competitive vertical agreements and abuse of dominant position, but not for cartels.