The Centre has appointed three new members to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) with the aim of expediting the regulator’s decision-making processes. The appointments were made to oversee multiple cases and increase the strength of CCI members to four, including Chairperson Ravneet Kaur.
The newly appointed members are Anil Agrawal, former Director General of Police and former Additional Secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Sweta Kakkad, former interim chief compliance officer at WhatsApp, and Deepak Anurag, who has served at the office of Comptroller and Auditor General.
These appointments come as a relief for the CCI as the lack of quorum had caused delays in making decisions. Having a quorum is a necessary requirement when considering investigation reports and approving adjudication orders at the CCI. Last year, the commission faced a situation where it couldn’t acknowledge investigation reports due to an insufficient quorum.
In addition to the new appointments, the CCI has also released draft rules regarding corporate mergers and acquisitions for public consultations. These draft rules include a provision for the implementation of a newly introduced deal value threshold (DVT), which requires pre-approval from the CCI for transactions exceeding ₹2,000 crore in value. The calculation of the ‘deal value’ would consider the total worth of any investments made in the target company any entity within the acquirer group over the past two years.
The revision of these rules on corporate mergers comes in response to the Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, which managed topass antitrust examination despite having a deal value of $19 billion.
These new appointments and draft rules are expected to strengthen the decision-making processes of the CCI and ensure more efficient regulation of competition in India’s market.
Definitions:
– Competition Commission of India (CCI): The antitrust regulator in India, responsible for preventing anti-competitive practices and promoting fair competition in the market.
– Quorum: The minimum number of members required to be present at a meeting for valid proceedings.
Sources:
– [1] Reuters. “Centre appoints three new members to competition panel.” Mint, 19 Sep. 2023.
