Newsletter/Booklets 28th Jan 2025
The year 2024 signaled a watershed moment for India’s competition regime, marked by a comprehensive overhaul of the competition framework, including the introduction of significant amendments to the Competition Act, 2002. This was accompanied by a slew of new rules and regulations, encompassing key areas such as mergers and acquisitions, settlements, commitments, leniency, and penalties.
Although overall enforcement levels remained modest, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) further sharpened its focus on the digital sector, initiating two new investigations against Google and imposing a substantial penalty and remedial measures on Meta.
The mergers and acquisitions landscape witnessed heightened momentum, with the CCI approving 107 transactions across key sectors such as finance, information technology, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. Among the headline-grabbing clearances was the approval of the Reliance/Disney merger, subject to specific voluntary modifications.
Looking ahead, the effects of the 2024 regulatory reforms are expected to continue shaping developments throughout 2025. Businesses are likely to adopt the newly introduced settlement and commitment mechanisms. Further, streamlined regulatory timelines are anticipated to accelerate merger clearances. With the introduction of the “deal value” threshold last year, a significant increase in the number of transactions being notifiable to CCI can be expected, especially in the digital sector.
As India’s competition law evolves, 2025 promises to be a defining year, with the CCI leveraging its enhanced toolkit of regulatory powers and precedents to shape the antitrust landscape. Stay tuned as we continue to monitor and analyze upcoming developments.
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