Keeping up with Competition - December 2023

A monthly newsletter by Axiom5

Welcome to the third issue of Keeping up with Competition, our monthly newsletter. We recap the events in the world of Indian competition law and policy in the month of November 2023. 

CCI appoints interim Director General of Investigation 

At the very end of the month, the CCI reshuffled some of its resources to appoint an interim Director General of Investigation (DG), Mr. Sanjay Kumar Pandey. Mr. Pandey continues to serve as an Advisor in the CCI’s advocacy division, and replaces Dr. Atul Verma till the appointment of a full time DG. Dr Verma was an officer of the Indian Police Service and was deputed to head the DG’s office in June 2020, serving for a little more than 3 years. The CCI issued a notice in July 2023 seeking applications to fill up the post of DG, on a deputation basis. 

Merger control - a snapshot

Merger control activity was limited (compared to previous months), with the CCI approving 7 transactions, 1 of which was under the Green Channel route. The CCI did not publish any detailed orders in November. Only 7 new transactions were notified to the CCI in November, a reduction from the 11 new notifications in October. 

Behavioural cases  

The CCI issued 3 closure orders in November, with the CCI finding that the informant did not present sufficient evidence on record to substantiate their allegations in 2 orders, and in one instance, because the party under investigation was not dominant. More detailed summaries of these orders are available here. 

There were no new substantive orders published by the NCLAT or various High Courts last month. However, the Supreme Court did consider and dismiss a special leave petition arising from a writ challenge by Agni Steels, which we covered in last month’s update.