INTRODUCTION
Competition Advocacy is the promotion of healthy competition among Indian competitive markets. Competition Commission of India (CCI) under the Competition Act 2002, is responsible for promoting awareness regarding the prevention of monopolistic practices among Indian competitors through non-enforcement mechanisms.[1] The Competition Act 2002 has taken its place by repealing the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act,1969, showing India’s intent to modernise its economy. Competition Advocacy uses persuasion rather than coercion to influence government authorities into pursuing competition practices and consumer choices. Being a preventative measure, it aims to raise awareness among consumer groups, business entities and higher authorities, ensuring voluntary compliance and smooth functioning of the markets. It can also be used as a tool to cultivate competition culture among the public.
OBJECTIVES
Promoting Consumer Welfare: Educating consumers regarding their rights and duties would encourage them to demand better quality goods and wider choices. On the other hand, this would encourage the markets to set competitive prices and turn the market dynamics positively. Consumer and market relationships go hand in hand; thus, it is necessary to contribute from both sides.
Fostering Efficient and Dynamic Markets: By creating awareness among the public and the markets, it reduces barriers to entry and allows dynamic and innovative markets to enter the field, creating a competitive environment. This increases efficiency in the market forces as well as economic productivity.
Contributing to Policies and Regulations: CCI often advises the government and other regulatory bodies to be inclusive of competition norms in their policies and aims to prevent the adoption of monopolistic practices in their regulations. This will act as a base for healthy competition and ensure the market force aligns with the competition goals.[2]
Growing a Culture of Compliance: Through stakeholder engagements, the businesses will grow into voluntary compliance with competition laws, reducing the need for enforcement mechanisms. This advocacy encourages self-regulation of businesses, boosts market confidence and protects consumers’ rights.[3]
Usage of Digital Platforms: Today’s scenario works better with the utilisation of digital platforms, which include conducting webinars and online sessions through online portals. This ensures reaching a wide set of markets, especially medium and small enterprises, as well as consumers in remote areas.
KEY MECHANISMS
Awareness Raising: The CCI conducts various workshops, seminars and meetings to create awareness based on the effects of anti-competitive practices and advantages of competition to specific targeted groups. This includes business owners, consumer groups, government authorities, lawyers, etc. This enables to dissemination of the rules and regulations of the act to larger groups quickly.
Policy Advocacy: Section 49(3) in the Competition Act 2002 deals with the consultative role of CCI, where the government formulates the policy by taking the suggestions and remedial measures of CCI into account. The key point is that the CCI should give its opinion within 60 days of receiving the advice.[4] This ensures a collaborative approach in the decision-making process.
Collaboration with other Regulators: It is known that many sectors in India are being regulated by multiple authorities; hence, the CCI enters into Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), etc. This ensures a healthy flow of competition among various sectors, strengthening unity.
Capacity Building and Training: The CCI initiates capacity-building programmes to develop the required skills for the identification of anti-competitive practices and impacts of the policy. The main aim is to sensitise the government officials, regulators, etc, in terms of the rules and regulations of the Competition Act as well as the challenges it imposes. This also helps to expand the knowledge base.[5]
KEY CHALLENGES
Resource Allocation: A key challenge is that Competition advocacy requires prominent resources such as individuals with expertise, funding, personnel and many more, with substantial enforcement mechanisms, which might lead to compromise in advocacy activities. It is a collective activity with various hindrances.
Measuring Impact: The result of advocacy is difficult to measure, such as changes in policies, people’s preferences, market forces, etc. Due to the inability to quantify the effectiveness, there is a limited scope for further changes and advancements.
Diverse Market Conditions: As a variety of markets with distinct features are established all over India, advocacy for those markets requires separate tailoring and context sensitivity. This also means confusion in resource allocation, as each market demands different amounts of resources.
Stakeholders Awareness: A lot of major stakeholders do not have enough awareness regarding the competition laws and their impact. Thus, engaging with them effectively and consistently is rigorous and impossible in some cases, especially in remote regions.[6]
CASE STUDIES IN INDIA
Sharad Kumar Jhunjhunwala & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. (Case No. 20 of 2019): The CCI identified barriers in entries in the railway catering sector, leading to the rendering of poor-quality services and dissatisfaction among consumers. Thus, the efforts of competition advocacy led to the intervention of the Ministry of Affairs to reform policies, set better pricing for consumers and allow new entries.[7]
Competition Commission of India v. State of Mizoram & Ors: This case was regarding an alleged bid-rigging in state lotteries, emphasising CCI’s Advisory role where discussions took place with the government and state authorities regarding anti-competitive practices, leading to legal reforms.[8]
Mohit Manglani v. Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. (CCI, 2019): The case was based on alleged predatory pricing and deep discounts from Flipkart, creating an immense impact on small sellers and consumer choices, due to a lack of competition. CCI reviewed the prices and emphasised the need for fair competition in online platforms as well.
CONCLUSION
Competition advocacy plays a prominent role in fostering the competitive market forces by creating awareness among government officials, businesses, consumer groups, etc. The enforcement is complemented by conducting workshops, seminars and online sessions, reaching a wide set of audience. Competition Advocacy is vital, as it aims to prevent anti-competitive practices and mitigate the risks of malpractices, ensuring positive market dynamics.[9] The road ahead for competition advocacy is promising as CCI is set to intensify the advocacy on sector-specific regulations and also collaborate with international organisations to deal with cross-border anti-competitive practices.
Author’s Name: Janavi Nithiyanandan (SRM, School of Law, Kattangalathur)
[1] “Competition Advocacy in India: Promoting Fair Markets and Consumer Welfare” (Legitimate India) <https://legitimateindia.com/study-material/law-notes/competition-laws/competition-advocacy-in-india-promoting-fair-markets-and-consumer-welfare/ > accessed 25 September 2025
[2] Competition Commission of India, Competition Advocacy (2023) <https://www.cci.gov.in/images/publications_booklet/en/competition-advocacy-booklet-in-english1689143284.pdf > accessed 29 September 2025
[3] ‘Competition Advocacy under Competition Act, 2002’ (LawBhoomi) <https://lawbhoomi.com/competition-advocacy-under-competition-act-2002/#Mechanisms_of_Competition_Advocacy> accessed 28 September 2025
[4] ‘Section 49 – The Competition Act, 2002’ (KanoonGPT) <https://kanoongpt.in/bare-acts/the-competition-act-2002/chapter-vii-section-49-3eb98a823b76bbaa> accessed 28 September 2025
[5] Competition Commission of India, Competition Advocacy (2023) <https://www.cci.gov.in/images/publications_booklet/en/competition-advocacy-booklet-in-english1689143284.pdf> accessed 29 September 2025
[6] Akhila Rani, ‘Unit 5 – part 2 Competition advocacy’ (Scribd) <https://www.scribd.com/document/634541068/Unit-5-part-2-Competition-advocacy > accessed 28 September 2025
[7] Sharad Kumar Jhunjhunwala v Union of India (Competition Commission of India, Case No. 100 of 2013, 28 February 2014)
[8] Rahul Singh, ‘The Supreme Court of India’s Respite to the State of Mizoram from Competition Law Proceedings’ (Oxford Law Blog, 14 February 2022) <https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2022/02/supreme-court-indias-respite-state-mizoram-competition-law> accessed 29 September 2025.
[9] “The Future of Fair Markets: Finance Minister Lays Out Vision at CCI’s 16th Annual Day” (Axiom5, 20 May 2025) <https://blog.axiom5.in/p/the-future-of-fair-markets-finance> accessed 29 September 2025
