Legislative Comment – The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022: Conundrums of the Application of Supply Side Substitutability to Define Relevant Market
- Dr. Sudhanshu Kumar and Gautam Shahi
The competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 introduced in the Lok Sabha during the recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament proposed multiple changes to the Indian Competition Act, 2002 with far reaching implications. One of such proposal is with respect to the definition of relevant product market (RPM). Currently, the Act defines RPM as a market of products or services that are considered as substitutable by the consumer. The Bill proposes to add ‘cost of switching supply’ as a factor in the delineation of RGM and RPM under section 19(6) and 19(7) of the Act respectively. In the present article, the authors have examined the implications of the proposed insertion in section 19(7). The article argues that although the Bill includes supply substitutability as a factor to delineate relevant market, the application of the same should be conditional and can only be applied under certain circumstances.