On 29th March 2023, the Lok Sabha passed the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which aims to amend the Competition Act of 2002. It includes several key amendments to the existing framework, such as expansion of the scope of cartel prosecution, the introduction of a deal value threshold for mergers and combination, and the modification of ‘turnover’ to mean global turnover, among others. The key changes are as follows:
- In order to regulate mergers and acquisitions, the Bill seeks to introduce deal value threshold as a condition. The deal value-based merger regulation brings transactions valued at more than INR 2,000 crore under the purview and approval of the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”). This is in addition to the existing assets and turnover based thresholds for merger control. The Bill also proposes to reduce the timeline for the CCI to pass an order on such transactions from 210 days to 150 days.
- In an effort to reduce litigation and allow easier resolution of disputes, the Bill provides a framework for settlement and commitment to faster resolution of investigations of anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position. The Bill also decriminalises certain offences under the Act by changing the nature of punishment from the imposition of fine to civil penalties.
- Control in the target company is an important consideration that affects CCI’s approval. The explanation of control has been expanded which spells out ‘material influence’ in any manner whatsoever over the management or affairs or strategic commercial decisions as the basis for control.
- The Bill expands the scope of turnover to global turnover derived from all products and services, for penalty purposes.
Payment and Settlement Systems
To help in further improving the cash flows of MSMEs, the scope of activity of Trade Receivables Discounting System is proposed to be expanded. Along with this, it is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to access Unified Payments Interface (“UPI”) for their merchant payments while they are in the country.
Currency Management
To improve distribution of coins among members of the public, RBI is preparing a pilot project on QR Code based Coin Vending Machine in collaboration with a few leading banks which will be a cashless coin dispensation machine which would dispense coins against a debit to the customers bank account using UPI.
