Busting international cartels: CCI Chief Kaur Calls for BRICS co-operation in enforcement

2023-10-11 16:38:37

Competition Commission of India (CCI) is in favour of increased co-operation among BRICS in the area of enforcement with regard to international cartels. But it does not see any scope for a “coordinated action” among the competition authorities on the aspect of enforcement, Ravneet Kaur, Chairperson, CCI has said.

“When it comes to enforcement, we have to be careful as each authority has its own legal framework, each country has its own different ecosystem. While we look at cooperation in field of enforcement, we cannot look at coordinated action. It has to be under relevant statute for each country”, Kaur said on the eve of 8th BRICS International Competition Conference 2023.

She was responding to a businessline query on whether she sees the scope of cooperation among BRICS competition authorities getting expanded to enforcement also in the coming days, especially in the context of international cartels.

Kaur highlighted that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is an important instrument available to CCI as it allows for cooperation and sharing of experiences and do market studies also. “I feel that MoU and powers under it are enough to look at cooperation on issues faced by various countries and which are beyond the borders”, Kaur added.

BIG TECH

In the context of Big Tech and gatekeeper platforms, Kaur underscored the need for CCI to look at cooperation with competition authorities in other countries “so that we are able to effectively address the issues that are coming up”.

EXPERT TAKE

Samir Gandhi, Partner and Co-founder, Axiom5 Law Chambers, a law firm, said, “International cooperation amongst competition authorities, particularly those in BRICS countries is much needed to prevent divergent outcomes and to harmonise the rules of the game, to the extent possible”.

However, inevitably the difference in legal standards and regimes will mean that such cooperation is unlikely to extend to sharing confidential information and evidence in enforcement proceedings, he added.