India: Antitrust/Competition Law

India has transformed its mergers and acquisitions landscape through sweeping legislative reforms and liberalized foreign investment policies, driving deal values to USD124 billion in 2025.

India's competition law landscape continues to evolve through landmark rulings and enforcement actions. From the Supreme Court's decisive intervention on merger control powers to the Competition Commission's aggressive pursuit of cartelisation and abuse of dominance cases, this quarterly review captures critical developments shaping antitrust practice. Notable decisions address co-location facilities, pharmaceutical distribution networks, beauty pageant restrictions, and trucking association cartels, while

Competition law in India is governed by the Competition Act, 2002 (‘Act’) which is not confined the adjudication of bilateral disputes; it is designed to protect market structure, consumer welfare, and the competitive process, as a whole. The distinction between a right in rem and a right in personam is central to understanding this design.

The Competition Commission of India issued multiple antitrust enforcement orders in June 2026, investigating exploitative practices in beauty pageants, penalizing truck associations for price-fixing in Odisha's mineral transport sector, and closing a long-standing pharmaceutical distribution case. The Commission also approved numerous mergers and acquisitions across infrastructure, energy, consumer goods, and technology sectors while addressing allegations of abuse of dominance in real estate, airport trans

On 13 July 2026, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) delivered two significant orders against HP India Sales Private Limited (HP India) and its network of resellers. The orders concerned the bid-rigging of tenders for the procurement of personal systems products (System Products Case) and supplies products (Supplies Case) .

The Competition Commission of India has issued significant rulings on anti-competitive practices in the transportation and pharmaceutical sectors, while simultaneously approving major corporate restructurings. These decisions address freight rate fixing by transport associations, the closure of proceedings against pharmaceutical industry bodies, and the formation of strategic joint ventures in commodity trading and plastic packaging.

India's proposed Digital Competition Bill mirrors Europe's Digital Markets Act in seeking to regulate large digital platforms through ex-ante rules. But would such a framework actually work in India's context...

The European Union's 2026 Steel import Regulation marks a fundamental shift from temporary trade safeguards to permanent industrial policy, dramatically reducing tariff-free quotas by 47%, doubling out-of-quota duties to 50%, and introducing stringent 'melt and pour' traceability requirements. This transformation raises critical questions about whether traditional distinctions between trade remedies and industrial policy are disappearing, with significant implications for major steel exporters like India.

The CESTAT Mumbai has clarified the customs classification dispute surrounding glucometers, determining whether these portable blood glucose measurement devices belong under medical instruments or chemical analysis apparatus in the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The Tribunal's decision hinges on the fundamental operational principle of glucometers and establishes important precedent for classifying devices that serve both analytical and medical purposes.