Anisha Chand, Partner, Khaitan and Co On Reduced Timelines For Review Of Merger Under Competition (Amendment) Bill

Key Changes Proposed In The Competition Amendment Bill: Deal value test: The CCI will have to precisely define what constitutes substantial business operations. Since different sectors will relate to this expression differently. For eg, for tech platforms, value of operations may lie in the user base or customers located in India, while for an infrastructure company, having plants and equipment itself is valueable even though not operational. Commitment and settlement: a lot will depend on the fine print of the associated regulations that CCI is to come up with. Effect on the compensation claims by persons who have suffered from the anti-competitive will also also have to be seen for parties who have settled the matter. Reduced Timelines: Compressing merger review timelines to 20 days could mean a higher burden on parties to do pre-filing consultations or face repeated questions from the CCI or suffer invalidations.