'Competition Compliance guidelines soon to be in public domain'

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SME Times News Bureau | 28 Jun, 2014
The Competition Commission of India will soon come up with well-defined underlines for competition compliance and will also put them in the public domain for better awareness amongst the corporates and various levels of management within the companies.

"Compliance is like the Truth, and not a mathematical formula to match the juggle. The industry must develop this culture and encourage competition. I welcome the initiatives and efforts of CII towards creating awareness on the same amongst the industry," said Ashok Chawla, Chairperson of Competition Compliance of India while addressing at Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII's) 'Boosting Competition Compliance - Tackling Challenges'.

With the objective of improving awareness and providing a platform to educate the India Inc on the issues, CII signed MoU with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) on Friday.

Chawla cautioned, "There are penalties and fines for non-compliance. The companies also lose credibility if found violating the Competition Compliance. So, the costs of violations are extremely high. There are no formulas defining the violations but there are host of factors derived from the behavioral aspects. Cross-country literature suggests a correlation between the degree of compliances and overall welfare of the society. India's GDP has tripled in two decades with growth of businesses and hence, the compliance is the need of hour."

Zia Mody, Managing Partner, AZB & Partners, said, "There is a need for awareness on the issue and the organizations need to aware their sales and marketing arms also. Marketing communications and big claims of the companies can go against them even after few years of making them. Exclusivity arrangements and dominance abuses are going to be closely watched."

She also added, "When there is a need for strong compliance, there is also need to treat each industry differently in the framework of Competition Compliance. In several countries there are incentives for adhering to the compliance which can be looked at for encouragement in India also."

Chawla responded that the suggestions might be considered in the future and competition is open to engage in a public dialogue.

Dr Naushad Forbes, Vice President, CII, said, "CII has been closely working with Competition Commission of India and we are committed to encourage the compliance not only in its true spirit but also to make it a reality."