THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMPETITION LAW IN INDIA: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION

Abstract

Dominance in law implies that a firm has a high degree of immunity from the normal disciplining forces of rival’s competitive reactions and consumer behavior .on the other hand, dominance as an economic concept is associated with the notion of market power. The Indian Competition Law, the Competition Act of 2002, like other modern competition laws covers agreements, abuse of dominant position and mergers. Under the Competition Act of India, section 4 deals with Abuse of Dominance or dominant position by an enterprise or a group. The ultimate concern of the competition law is about market power and its abuse. The Law of Competition in India seeks to ensure fair competition by prohibiting trade practices which cause appreciable adverse effect on competition in markets within India. Market power is used to mean the ability of enterprises to raise price above the level that would prevail under the competitive conditions. The Competition law prohibits the use of market controlling position to prevent individual enterprises or a group from driving out competing businesses from the market as well as from dictating prices. The concept of abuse of dominant position of market power refers to anticompetitive business practices in which dominant firm may engage in order to maintain or increase its position in the market. Theoretical Research methodology has been used in this paper to conduct the study. This paper includes a study on what is dominance in market and how this dominant position is abused it also deals with collective dominance and the concept of predatory pricing.