Budget 2023: Centre likely to propose amendments to competition law

The Central government may propose an amendment to the competition law in the upcoming Parliament budget session. The amendment to the competition law will come after taking into consideration various suggestions of a Parliamentary panel, a senior official told the news agency PTI. 

Amendments to laws such as the Competition Act; Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC); Companies Act, 2013 are expected this year. A bill to amend the competition law was introduced in the Parliament on August 5, 2022, and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. 

The introduction of a ‘Settlement and Commitment framework to reduce litigations’ and incentivise parties in an ongoing cartel investigation in terms of lesser penalty to disclose information regarding other cartels were among the proposals in the bill introduced in August 2022. 

The committee tabled its report on December 13, 2022 and the ministry will come up with an amendment bill after taking into consideration the recommendations of the committee. The senior official further said that the corporate affairs ministry is examining the panel’s suggestions for having a new digital competition law. 

In another report on ‘Anti-Competitive Practices by Big Tech Companies’ on December 22, the parliamentary panel proposed a new digital competition law, ex-ante regulations and creation of a category of systematically important digital intermediaries to curb anti-competitive practices in the digital market. 

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