Uber and Ola finally win antitrust case in India -Supreme Court upholds NCLAT decision -No Hub and Spoke cartel – (but importantly rejects NCLAT decision on lack of locus standi )

The Supreme Court of India vide its judgement dated 15.12. 2020 has upheld the concurrent findings on merits of Competition Commission of India (“CCI/ Commission”) dated 06.11.2018 and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) order dated 29.05.2020, wherein allegation of use of algorithmic pricing to facilitate price fixing cartel made against taxi aggregators, Ola…

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CCI ORDERS ANOTHER INVESTIGATION AGAINST GOOGLE’S ALLEGED ABUSE OF DOMINANCE BY GOOGLE PAY IN THE MARKET FOR ONLINE APP BASED PAYMENTS

This case provides the third instance in which CCI directed investigation into specific conducts by Google and is an off shoot of the investigation underway against Google for allegedly leveraging its dominant position in the markets for licensable Android OS for Smartphone manufacturers and the market for App stores for its Android OS to protect its market position in the market for App facilitating payment though UPIs, in terms of specific provisions of Section 4(2)(e) of the Act. Noticeably, CCI has directed investigation only in two , though major allegations , while dismissing three other allegations of favoritism, manipulations etc.by Google in it search results for Google Pay in the absence of any tangible evidence

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CCI dismisses allegations of abuse of dominance and exclusive arrangements against Amazon in the menswear fashion retail market

CCI dismisses allegations of abuse of dominance and exclusive arrangements against Amazon in the menswear fashion retail market By way of order dated 11.09.2020, the Competition Commission of India (“Commission/CCI”) has dismissed allegations of: (i) abuse of dominance and (ii) concluding exclusive agreements with Amazon Export Sales LLC and Cloudtail India Pvt Ltd (“Cloudtail”) against…

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Make India Competitive-India badly needs a National Competition Policy -Essential for growth in a free market economy

Make India Competitive-India badly needs a National Competition Policy -Essential for growth in a free market economy The Prime Minister Modi’s  vision of achieving US Dollar 5 Trillion Economy by 2025 seems to be under cloud now. The recent Rupees 20 lakh crore economic package to stimulate growth during and post COVID-19 crisis may take…

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CCI dismisses allegations on WhatsApp and Facebook for abuse of dominance in digital payments market

CCI dismisses allegations on WhatsApp and Facebook for abuse of dominance in digital payments market By way of order dated 18.08.2020, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance by WhatsApp Inc (“WhatsApp”) and Facebook Inc (“Facebook”) in the market for internet-based messaging application through smartphones to manipulate another market…

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CCI again refrains from imposing penalty in a bid rigging cartel for supply of composite brake blocks to Indian Railways due to COVID 19

CCI again refrains from imposing penalty in a bid rigging cartel for supply of composite brake blocks to Indian Railways due to COVID 19     By way of order dated 10 July 2020, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI/Commission”) found 10 suppliers of different types of Composite Brake Blocks (CBBs) to Indian Railways having…

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NCLAT redefines limitation in filing competition appeals

NCLAT redefines limitation in filing competition appeals   By way of judgement dated 29 May 2020, the Hon’ble National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) has dismissed an appeal against order dated 28 November 2017 passed by the Competition Commission of India (“CCI/Commission”) in favour of NIIT Limited (“NIIT”) primarily on the ground that the time…

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WEBINAR ON EXCLUSIVE CLAUSES IN COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS: COMPETITION CONCERNS -5TH JUNE 2020

WEBINAR ON EXCLUSIVE CLAUSES IN COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS: COMPETITION CONCERNS –  5TH JUNE 2020   While continuing to fight the Covid-19 Pandemic and working from home, like most other lawyers in India, knowledge dissemination has proved to be a silver lining. I decided to conduct a series of webinars on antitrust issues of larger importance. I…

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