Introduction
Competition advocacy refers to the promotion of the benefits of Competition within the Indian competitive market. The Competition Act of 2002 deals with Competition Advocacy under section 49 of the Act. The Competition Commission Of India (CCI) is entitled to the responsibility of promoting and raising awareness about Competition in the Indian market. Thus, section 49 of the Competition Act 2002 mandates that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) be a responsible body in dealing with the promotion and growth of the competitive market environment.
The Competition Commission of India organizes workshops, Conferences, and Seminars from time to time in order to create awareness and make consumers aware of the importance of Competition in the Market. Additionally, competitive Advocacy plays a crucial role in shaping and regulating policies and providing recommendations and suggestions related to Competition to the Central or State Government, as the case may be. Competition advocacy helps to reform competition-related policies and contributes to the welfare and benefits of consumers.
The Competition Act was passed by the Indian parliament in 2002 in order to regulate the Indian Competition market with framed rules and regulations and to enhance fairness and transparency within the market. Section 49 of the Competition Act of 2002 mandates the Competition Commission of India(CCI), which is a regulatory body and a watchdog of the Competition market, to make the consumers aware of the market environment. The Act entitles the Competition Commission of India to spread and expand awareness among consumers about market policy and consumer behaviour, which impacts the market parameters.
‘Competition Advocacy’ refers to promoting and supporting or creating awareness among market beneficiaries regarding the market strategies and phenomena and how those strategies have an impact on the market environment. The Competition Commission of India is responsible for the Competition Advocacy. As per Section 49 of the Competition Act of 2002, the Competition Commission of India encourages healthy competition and helps promote and sustain a fair market by creating and spreading awareness.
By the term Competition Advocacy, the Competition Commission of India is not only limited to the term making advocacy about fair and healthy competition but also to eradicate the monopoly from the market and promote more and more competitors within the market. The Competition Commission of India also organizes workshops, Seminars, Conferences, etc., to spread the benefits of the competition as well as to bring more and more competition in the market.
Competition Advocacy: A Conceptual Framework
Competition advocacy refers to the promotion of the benefits of competition within the Indian competitive market. The Competition Act of 2002 deals with Competition Advocacy under section 49 of the Act.
The Competition Commission Of India (CCI) is entitled to the responsibility of promoting and raising awareness about competition in the competitive market. Thus, section 49 of the Competition Act 2002 mandates that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) be a responsible body in dealing with the promotion and growth of the competitive market environment. The Competition Commission of India organizes workshops, Conferences, and Seminars from time to time in order to create awareness and make consumers aware of the importance of Competition in the Market. Additionally, competitive advocacy plays a crucial role in shaping and regulating policies and providing recommendations and suggestions related to Competition to the Central or State Government, as the case may be. Competition advocacy helps reform competition-related policies and contributes to the welfare and benefits of consumers.
Competition Advocacy and CCI
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a regulatory body in the Competition market, also called the watchdog, which was established under section 7 of the Competition Act, 2002 which is entitled to deal with Competition Advocacy and create a necessary and suitable market environment required for the consumers to be accessed.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is closely associated with the framework dealing with Competition Advocacy under section 49 of the Act. The Competition Commission of India is the sole authority to advocate for competition on behalf of the consumers as well as for the benefit of the consumers. The Competition Commission of India makes the necessary arrangements to spread competition advocacy. The Competition Commission of India plays a crucial role within the Competition market through its Competition Advocacy power. The Competition Commission of India leaves a print on the competition market environment with its non-enforcing mechanisms, such as education. Basically, The Competition Commission of India plays the role of Competition advocate within the Competitive market.
Objective and Need of Competition Advocacy
Generally, in the competitive market, the company tries to establish itself as a dominant player and has a dominant position to influence the consumers. Similarly, consumers have behaviour to opt for the lowest price goods with the highest quality products. Thus, the Competition Commission of India comes into play to promote the benefits of consumers who are unaware of the competitive market approach. Moreover, the Competition Commission Of India helps consumers to know more about the importance and needs of the Competition market through Competition Advocacy; here, the Competition Commission of India becomes an advocate of competition to the product beneficiaries.
Additionally, the competition laws and policies made by the Government are not enough to secure the interests of the consumers. Apart from that, in the Competition market, the implementation of such laws, policies and schemes is also required in the true sense; thus, to achieve this objective, the Competition Commission of India arranges Seminars, workshops, Conferences, etc., from time to time to promote the competition-enabling environment. Besides this, the Competition Commission of India uses various other methods to reach more and more audiences in order to make them understand the importance of competition within the market. The Competition Commission of India uses different ways, such as utilizing media channels to reach an audience, providing competition training among government officials to spread awareness, and organizing a legal competition among students through different modes and platforms.
Competition Advocacy: Role of CCI in Government Policy
The Competition Commission of India plays a significant role in the Government’s competition policies through competition advocacy. The Central or State Government get in touch with the Competition Commission of India. Apart from this, the Competition Commission of India not only reviews the competition-related policies of the Government but also provides recommendations and suggestions for such policies and may ask the Government to either make a new Competition policy or to amend the prevailing policy if required or the Competition Commission of India think it to be fit as the case may be.
Moreover, the Central or State Government may, on its own, request the suggestion of the Competition Commission of India regarding a law or policy upon which the Competition Commission of India may provide its recommendations within 60 days from the date asked. Apart from that, the Competition Commission of India, under section 49 of the Competition Act 2002, helps in the implementation and execution of Competition policies and also checks whether such policy meets the guidelines of the Competition Act 2002 or not.
Advocacy And the Competition Act, 2002
The Competition Act of 2002 is the result and recommendation of the Raghavan committee’s report. The suggestions made by the Raghavan Committee Report 2002, the report recommended enacting a new law in regard to competition and monopolies in India and also setting up the Competition Commission of India, which would effectively deal with the anti-competitive policies, abuse of dominant position, adjudication related to Competitions issues and also the Commission should have given the power to punish the violators of the Competition Laws as well as more specifically to deal with the provision related to Competition Advocacy.
There is a direct relationship between Competition Advocacy and Competition law. Section 7 of the Competition Act, 2002 deals with the establishment of the Competition Commission of India, which is empowered to deal with matters related to Competition Advocacy. The Commission has to act as a competition advocate and bring about government policies that lower the barriers to entry. The Act empowers the Commission to promote liberalization and privatization to spread competition in the market and also encourage new market players to enter the market to be involved and contribute to developing and creating market competitiveness that benefits the consumers.
Tools of Competition Advocacy and Role of CCI
The Competition Commission of India plays a pivotal role in the Competition Advocacy. To promote public awareness regarding competition and Competition Advocacy, the Competition Commission of India applies various Tools and techniques to reach the audience and, significantly, the unreachable section of society to encourage the people regarding the needs and necessities of competition and the laws and policies related to it.
The different Competition authorities effectively utilize various competition-related Tools. The various ways and tools, such as seminars, conferences, campaigns, and different levels of training programs for government officials, aim to target more and more audiences. Tools like publishing brochures, various articles, and guidelines and posting them on office websites help the reader to get in touch with the advocacy made by the Competition Commission of India. The Competition Commission of India not only provides suggestions but also unquestioningly gives its view of the market and competition. It studies the market phenomenon and market dimensions and accordingly gives its opinion on policy formulation and implementation. The role of competition advocacy is a new concept within the competition market domain. There is an urgent need for the market to have more and more awareness regarding the competition. Globally, more than 140 countries have adopted the competition law and have given importance to more involvement in competition-related policies. And many more countries are on the path to adopting and implementing competition law policies.
Competition Advocacy and Economic Growth
Competition advocacy is the main pillar of modern competition law, which aims at creating, expanding and strengthening awareness of competition in the market. Generally, competition advocacy has a very positive impact on the economic growth of the country as it encourages the new market players to adopt the competition policy, which ultimately results in new innovative ideas and phenomena by the new market players in order to establish themselves in the market aspects and encouragingly adopt the competition law policies. Moreover, competition advocacy also encourages consumers to be more and more involved in the competition market, which consequently results in the country’s economic growth. The more competition within the market-driven firms and competition to improve their quality and productivity. Fair market practices also lead to the availability and allocation of market resources and property, which significantly impacts economic growth.
The competition instinct among the producers drives them to continuously work on innovations and development to advance their product quality and beat their rivals, which not only helps them advance their technology and economy but also fosters innovations and diversifies the economy. The competition also helps the firm to improve their efficiency and use their incentives effectively to make productive output remain in the market for a more extended period. Competition advocacy opines the promotion of privatization and liberalization, which often helps promote growth and enhance compatibility. Liberalization policy helps new players enter the market, which at the same time enhances consumers’ choices and economic development and growth.
Conclusion
Hence, as discussed above, Competition Advocacy plays an essential role in promoting awareness among consumers regarding the Competitive market environment. Competition advocacy is one of the essential pillars of competition law, which, on the other hand, helps consumers meet their demands, influences government policies, and gives them recommendations. Along with that, it also drives firms and companies to increase their productivity and enhance product quality.
