Competition Commission of India introduces Draft Regulations on Combinations

A significant development has been introduced by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) wherein the CCI has proposed a draft of the Competition Commission of India (Combinations) Regulations, 2023 (Draft Regulations, 2023) in response to the amendments made by the Competition Amendment Act, 2023 (Amendment Act).

The Amendment Act made significant modifications with respect to combinations, including the following:

1. A new notification criterion based on deal value thresholds for mergers and acquisitions where the value of the transaction exceeds INR 2000 crore, and the concerned enterprises have significant business operations in India;
2. Relaxing the application of Section 6(2A) of the Competition Commission Act, 2002 to transactions that involve the implementation of an open offer or purchase of securities on a regulated stock exchange;
3. A reduction in the assessment timeline for combinations from 210 days to 150 days;
4. Introduced an intermediate time limit of 30 days for forming an opinion;
5. Amendment to the scheme for review of combinations; and
6. Change in the procedure for proposing modifications to combinations.

As regards the Amendment Act, CCI proposed the Draft Regulations 2023 which intends to replace and supersede the Competition Commission of India (Procedure in regard to the transaction of business relating to combinations) Regulations, 2011. The Draft Regulations 2023 discuss matters pertaining to the following:

1. Transaction value and criterion for substantial business operations in India;
2. Format of notice for the proposed combination;
3. Exercise of rights with respect to open offers and acquisitions on stock exchanges;
4. Amount of fee and mode of remittance;
5. Process for filing notice and scrutiny of notice; and
6. Procedure for modification to proposed combination.

The CCI has invited interested stakeholders to submit comments on the Draft Regulations 2023 within a set timeline of 21 days starting from September 05, 2023, to September 25, 2023. The comments can only be submitted via a form provided on the official website of CCI at https://cci.gov.in/stakeholders-topics-consultations.