“We’re seeing rapid adoption of AI; it has become a driving force in the modern market, and by using AI, there may also be potential ways of collusion… so regulators need to take a forward-looking approach,” she said.
Kaur said at the National Competition Law and Law Conference that market research is a tool to achieve “a comprehensive analysis of market structure, how business models work, various arrangements among participants, and potential competition issues.”
She noted that the amendment proposed by the Competition Law in 2023 is intended to balance law enforcement with market-friendly regulations. The government introduced amendments to the law that proposed concepts such as commitment and settlement and shifted from miss-centric transaction determination to transaction value centered on transaction value. “Trading value thresholds have been introduced” to determine the merger transaction, Kaul said.
She said the amendments motivated stakeholders to provide settlements through a “discount settlement” even after the Director-General completed the investigation.
Kaur highlighted the performance of CCI in 2024, saying regulators received 42 antitrust cases and found Prima Facie violations in eight cases. Over the past 15 years, CCI has handled 1,180 antitrust cases in the 1,300 cases it has received. A large number of legal applications in competition law cases have been better addressed, “We are carefully monitoring the middle applications… and monitoring the consistency and efficiency of all applications.”
