Leniency Plus Norms : CCI
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has released a draft of revised lesser penalty regulations that provides for introduction of a “leniency plus” programme
- Leniency plus’ norms is a new cartel detecting tool and sheds light on how the competition watchdog intends to operationalize it.
- The “Leniency Plus” regime was part of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2023
- Leniency Plus is a proactive antitrust enforcement strategy aimed at attracting leniency applications by encouraging companies already under investigation for one cartel to report other cartels unknown to the competition regulator.
- The benefit that would entail such disclosure is a reduction of penalty in the first cartel to the person disclosing the information, without prejudice to the company obtaining lesser penalty regarding the newly disclosed cartel.
- This “leniency plus” regime is already recognised in jurisdictions like the UK, US, Singapore, and Brazil.
Competition Commission of India:
- It is a statutory body of the Government of India, was established in March 2009 under the Competition Act, 2002.
- The goal of CCI is to create and sustain fair competition in the economy that will provide a ‘level playing field’ to the producers and make the markets work for the welfare of consumers.
- The priority of the Commission is to eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers, and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.
