COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SECTOR REGULATORS AND COMPETITION LAW - A.JONAH ELISA SHINY
COMPETITION AUTHORITIES : skills necessary for delineating relevant markets, assessing likelihood of harm to competition, entry conditions and market power.
SECTOR REGULATORS : To ensure reasonable tariffs ,third party access ,service standards etc, and to promote competition in the regulated sector, particularly addressing entry barriers and access issues.
AREAS OF CONFLICT
Licensing Conditions-Dominance-Monopoly pricing
Restrictive Business Practices -Merger control
INCEPTION OF SECTOR REGULATOR:
1.Monnet Sugar Limited V Union of India
2.Reliance Airport Developers Pvt. Ltd V Airports Authority Of India
INCEPTION OF COMPETITION LAW:
ØCompetition commission of India (CCI)
ØCompetition Appellate Tribunal (CAT)
ØSection 18,21,60 and 62 of the Competition Act,2002 –Essence of Interface between competition authority and sector specific regulators in India.
TYPES OF REGULATION AND COMPETITION
Economic – Technical-Social-Administrative Regulation
CONFLICT BETWEEN CCI AND SECTOR REGULATORS CAUSED BY:
Legislative Ambiguity - Jurisdictional overlap - legislative omission. Interpretational bias involved could further aggravate the conflicts. Conflicts between two may be generated by the market players and legal arbitrators for obvious reasons.
INTERNATIONALEXPERIENCE-Namibia, E.U, U. S. A, Australia
Concurrent Jurisdiction: U.K-Netherlands-Namibia.
Cooperation and Co-ordination: Jamaica-Singapore ,India.
INDIA has the cooperative and co-ordination approach in competition Act, 2002
Section 21: Reference by Statute.
Section 21 A: Reference by Commission.
Section 49 :Competition Advocacy.
INDIAN PERSPECTIVE- A LESSON FOR INDIA
India needs to do the same in terms of tailoring the best approach that suits its needs:
a)Clarifying Jurisdictional Roles.
b) Designing a Mandatory cooperative framework.
THREE BROAD OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR DIVIDING THE TASK
1.The sector regulator supplants the competition Authority.
2.The competition Authority replaces the sector regulator.
3.The competition Authority and sector regulator exists.
1. To create a system to ensure cooperation between CCI and other Sector Regulations.
2. Both CCI and Sector regulator have their areas of expertise and both cannot replace each other.
3. A formal mechanism for coordination between CCI and The sector regulators is of key importance.
