CCI to firm up rules for leniency-plus regime: Chairperson Ravneet Kaur

Companies that are under investigation for cartelisation will soon get to reduce penalties on them by disclosing information about other cartels under the Competition Commission of India's proposed 'leniency-plus' regime, the regulator's chairperson Ravneet Kaur said on Tuesday.

CCI will soon seek stakeholder comments for the proposed regulations and finalise them so that the regime, introduced as part of the amended competition law earlier this year, is enforced, she said.

About the regulator's probe into Apple Inc's alleged anti-competitive app store and billing policies, Kaur said she is awaiting a report by the director-general (DG) for investigation.


"Once we receive the report, we will take action," she said on the sidelines of her first press conference since taking over as the CCI chief in May.

Sharing updates of CCI's ongoing probe against Google, Kaur said the alleged abuse of market dominance relating to its smart television operating system is under inquiry, while investigation on news publishers' complaint against the search engine is ongoing.

The regulator had slapped a fine of ₹1,337 crore on Google in October last year in another matter, which has now been challenged in the Supreme Court. The fresh investigations only add to the tech giant's woes.

Kaur said CCI has made good progress in clearing cases of anti-profiteering relating to the goods and services tax regime in recent months. The regulator will handle such cases expeditiously now that it has the required member strength to form a quorum to deal with them, she said. CCI was given the mandate to investigate such cases starting December 2022.

Separately, Kaur said the regulator will conduct a study on artificial intelligence in the evolving competition landscape.

CCI members Anil Agrawal, Sweta Kakkad and Deepak Anurag and senior regulatory officials attended the press briefing.

BRICS CONFERENCE
In her press meet, Kaur said competition authorities of the BRICS grouping will meet this week to deliberate on existing and emerging anti-trust issues, including regulations for digital players.

India is hosting the conference after a gap of 10 years.

More than 600 delegates are expected to attend the event in the national capital from Wednesday through Friday and a joint statement will be produced upon its completion, Kaur said.