A Jurisprudential Study of Antitrust Laws and Its Impact on the Indian Market

Abstract

Competition is a dynamic term whose definition changes according to the circumstances. In the field of economics, healthy competition among industries is known to be the driving force behind innovations/improvisations of products. Competition among industries needs to be checked and regulated from time to time. Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices act was the first competition regulation that came into power, post-independence. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, after the incorporation of Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization, became redundant as it could not stand the test of time and failed to achieve its objectives. After globalization, when the competition in the markets surged, it became necessary for the legislators to regulate the competitive structure of the industries in order to protect the interest of the consumers. The unreliability of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act became the reason for the Government to set up a committee, headed by S. V .S. Raghavan, to tailor a law as per the developing nature of the Indian economic structure, after which the Competition Act was brought into force. A comparative study of both; the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, and the Competition Act, brings forth; the reasons behind the fallacy of the past regulation, and the changes brought into the current legislation. This paper is also supported by various judgments that helped in shaping the competition regulations. The goal of this study is to educate and provide its reader with a more distinct view of the development of Competition regulations in India post-independence. It is anticipated that this paper will provide readers with a brief understanding of the evolution of competition regulations in India.