CCI must enforce penalty rules for competition law violations: House panel

Fair trade watchdog CCI should vigorously enforce the determination of penalty guidelines to curb the risk of repeated competition law violations being internalised as a "mere cost of doing business", according to a Parliamentary panel.
These guidelines provide for repeated competition law contraventions as an aggravating factor while imposing penalties to ensure that such offences do not happen in the future, the Committee on Subordinate Legislation of the Rajya Sabha said.
The recommendation is part of the report tabled this week in Parliament by the committee chaired by Milind Murli Deora on the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
In the report, the committee said vigorous antitrust enforcement is indispensable to ensure that the least advantaged are not further disadvantaged by unfair or anti-competitive conduct.
"Small businesses, MSMEs, startups etc should be able to depend upon a steady and vigorous enforcement of the competitive laws to safeguard their ability to ...