CCI to unveil ‘leniency plus’ draft norms soon

CCI to unveil ‘leniency plus’ draft norms soon

Subject: Economy

Section: National Income

In News: CCI to unveil leniency plus draft norms soon to tackle cartels.

Key Points:

• CCI to soon unveil draft of game changing Leniency Plus norms in relationship to anti-competitive activity of cartelisation.
• Companies under scrutiny to be offered incentives to spill the secrets of multiple cartels
• This is being seen as an industry friendly move.
• The Competition Commission of India will soon roll out draft regulations on the leniency plus programme
• It will be a new cartel detecting tool  that would encourage com panies already under in vestigation for one cartel to report other cartels un known to the competition regulator.
• The leniency plus concept was part of the Competition Amendment Act 2023, which received Presidential assent in April 2023.
• Earlier CCi brought out the draft norms for commitment and settlement and separate norms for comprehensive changes in the combinations regulations.
• Existing leniency regime:
  • Under the existing leniency lesser penalty rule framework CCI may impose a lesser penalty on a person involved in a cartel if such person has made a full and true disclosure in respect to alleged violations
  •  CCIs experience of enforcing leniency regime has been encouraging
• Liniency Plus:
  • Now the competition watchdog is moving one step ahead with the introduction of leniency plus programme
  • Under leniency plus a cartelist who is cooperat ing with CCI for leniency can disclose the existence of another cartel in an un related market in the course of original leniency proceedings in exchange for an additional reduction in penalty.
  • A leniency plus regime is expected to further incentivise applicants to come forward with disclosures regarding multiple cartels thereby enabling the CCI to save time and resources on cartels investigation
  • This will result in faster market corrections.