On August 05, 2022, the Central Government introduced the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in Parliament. The 2022 Bill was sent to the Standing Committee on Finance for review because it proposed amendments in the Competition Act, 2022. Thereafter, the Committee invited comments from various stakeholders and proposed their suggestions in the 2022 Bill. In December 2022, the Standing committee submitted its report and the Bill was re-introduced with few amendments in February 2023. On March 29, 2023, the Lok Sabha passed the Bill. Followed by this, the Rajya Sabha passed the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023 on April 03, 2023.
Major Amendments to note about the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023
It is important to note that the draft Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 presented in the Parliament was based on the report by the Competition Law Review Committee had proposed to insert Section 4A in the Competition Act, 2002 seeking to extend the Intellectual Property Rights Safe Harbour to the Intellectual Property Rights holders in relation to abuse of dominant position under Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 extracted below:
“4A. Nothing contained in section 3 or section 4 shall restrict the right of any person to restrain any infringement of, or to impose reasonable conditions, as may be necessary for protecting any of his rights which have been or may be conferred under:
a) the Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957);
b) the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970);
c) the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 (43 of 1958) or the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1999);
d) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (48 of 1999);
e) the Designs Act, 2000 (16 of 2000);
f) the Semi-conductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act, 2000 (37 of 2000);
g) any other law for the time being in force relating to the protection of other intellectual property rights.
(2) Nothing contained in section 3 shall restrict the right of any person to export goods from India to the extent to which the agreement relates exclusively to the production, supply, distribution or control of goods or provision of services for such export.”[1]
However, the aforementioned was deleted from the 2023 Bill.
Conclusion
These proposals aim to safeguard consumer interests, further promote and sustain market competition, and ensure freedom of trade for market participants. Overall, the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023 is a right step towards ensuring fair competition.
