Distinguished Lecture on “Major Trends in Global Enforcement of International Cartels” by Prof. John M. Connor

CIRC in collaboration with CUTS International conducted a distinguished lecture on “Major Trends in Global Enforcement of International Cartels” on 1st March 2017 in India International Centre, New Delhi.

Prof. Connor specializes in empirical research in industrial economics and competition policy. Since 1997 the focus of his research has been international price-fixing cartels and world-wide enforcement of price-fixing laws. The distinguished lecture gave the participants an opportunity to learn about various aspects of international enforcement directed at cartels. Presentation slides of the lecture can be accessed at https://goo.gl/KW21PJ. Among others, a large number of young competition lawyers attended the lecture. Mr. Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International welcomed the dignitaries and underlined the importance of robust enforcement against cartels, as being one of the biggest civil crimes in a market economy. Commending the endeavors by CUTS in the field of competition law and policy, Prof. Connor gave interesting instances and cases on global cartels while sharing his research experience.

Highlighting the challenges and solutions, Prof. Connor stressed on proactive cooperation between competition authorities to check global cartels. ‘One of the major problems faced by competition authorities is that they don’t get cooperation from countries in acting against global cartels’ he observed. He said that the dangers of over-deterrence of cartel fines are exaggerated and under-deterrence of cartelisation in the norm generally. Post-lecture-discussion moderated by Mr. Mehta involved eminent competition law experts including Amitabh Kumar, a senior competition lawyer and former DG, Competition Commission of India.

With reference to the first leniency case in India, Mr. Kumar highlighted the need for clear leniency and penalty regime for competition enforcement in India, and therefore there is a need for a clear set of guidelines for the same. In his vote of thanks, Mr. Mehta concluded that robust enforcement mechanisms are needed to control cartels and optimal cartel fines need to take into account the consumer harm so as to ensure the welfare of consumers. “We have been highlighting this every year during the observance of the World Competition Day on 5th December”, he said. “Next year, we will highlight the need for global cooperation and also raise it at the forthcoming ICN meeting in Porto, Portugal”.

Latest Publication
Fuelling growth with corporate bond, Business Standard, 6th March 2017.The external web link is https://goo.gl/0TRL4a

Abstract:

Globally, the availability of finance from banks and financial institutions is shrinking. With the hardening of the prudential norms under the Basel regime, a substantial part of the much needed long-term finance, both equity and debt, would have to come from the capital markets. For India to achieve a higher economic growth rate and invest heavily in infrastructure, reliance predominantly on banks with challenged balance sheets will not be adequate.

Papers Published
Saket Sharma, Senior Fellow CIRC, presented a paper in the National Conference on Competition Law and Policy: Problems and Prospects organized by Indian Law Institute, New Delhi and Competition Commission of India on 18th and 19th March 2017. The paper titled Evolution of Intellectual Property and Competition Law Interface: Analysis and Prognosis of the Legal Framework in India, discussed the evolving IP and competition law interface in India while highlighting the current challenges which emanate from the sketchy legal framework. The paper analyses how competition law regulates IP to check the related anticompetitive practices in India and the related challenges faced by the nascent Indian regime in definitional, jurisdictional and respective remedial levers.

Ongoing Projects

Manipur Project
CUTS Institute of Regulation and Competition (CIRC) through its think tank Global Initiative for Sustainable Infrastructure (GISI) has undertaken a research assignment to test the feasibility of developing an integrated tourism hub at the Loktak Lake in Manipur through PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. The proposed tourism hub will host independent and mutually beneficial facilities like exhibition halls, convention centers, banquet halls, auditoria, arena, financial center, hotels, food & beverage (F&B) outlets & retail services. In the surrounding vicinity of the hub, other facilities such as the traditional market for handicrafts, local food joints, ethnic wear stores, and other related cultural and traditional shops can be set up.

The project is envisioned to be developed through an optimum Public-Private Partnership model with support of viable gap funding if required. The proposed center can become a key facilitator in making Manipur a key destination in NER India under the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) destination category.

Project Goals: The objective of the research is to assist the government of Manipur to establish an integrated tourism hub through PPPs which would create direct and indirect job creation for the people of Manipur through the following activities:

Odisha Project
The water and sanitation sector has several impediments marred when it comes to private sector participation. The constraints are from all stakeholders in the value chain such as supply side, demand side and from the community. While local bodies/gram panchayats face major problems in financing the projects for asset creation and service delivery, there is apprehension about private sector participation on a very sensitive social need. Fear of ownership, consumer perception of water service delivery as a free service is one of the major causes of concern. There are constraints because of political sensitivities and activism of select NGOs/CSOs on social vs. capital issue which makes it even harder for the entry of private players in this sector

Thus, there is a need to create a structured approach for enabling private investment in the sector, including training and capacity building for the state units. This research is an initiative to focus on identifying various PPP models and structures which can be successfully implemented in the water and sanitation sector. The pilot state identified for the study is Odisha. The study would majorly focus on rural and semi-urban centers with a cluster approach to provide for a minimum economic size of 50-75,000 population. However, as we enter the first phase, other states could be added depending upon the response of the respective governments.

The objective of the project will be the development of a sustainable and inclusive PPP model through the promotion of People’s first PPPs. The model will focus on the development of infrastructure assets and the delivery of associated services that specifically focus on the poor and the under-serviced sections of the society.

CompIP Project
CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC) along with CUTS International is undertaking empirical-based research to advocate for constructive policy and regulatory reforms in the IPR regime in order to foster innovation and competition. This research is envisaged to facilitate the promotion of a balanced IP regulatory framework that promotes and advances technological innovations, resulting in benefits to consumers and producers in India. Currently, the CompIP research program is for a period of 3 years culminating in September 2018 and will provide a sustainable platform for discourse and discussions involving different stakeholders from industry, government, regulators, academia, media, etc.

During the first phase, CIRC organized the launch conference for this project in March 2016. A roundtable discussion on Growth of ICT Sector in India: Issues and Challenges pertaining to SEPs was organised on August 22, 2016, in New Delhi and was attended by government officials, CCI officials, industry players, academicians researchers and other experts in the field. For the second phase of the project, a lot of activities are lined up for the year 2017. These activities include distinguished lectures by international experts, faculty development program (FDP), policy dialogue workshop and research in the area of IP and competition law.

Research study on latent Power Demand assessment for the state of West Bengal
The demand projections made by discoms (Distribution Companies) are based on actual units consumed and a projected rate of growth of demand for each category of customer, based on past trends. They are made assuming the limitations of the existing distribution/transmission network. The latent demand from a population is left without service by the existing network, or from areas provided limited energy due to network limitations, do not figure in the demand projections. Another issue with the demand projections is that the power distribution utilities, due to flawed methodologies are not accounting the actual power consumption correctly, courtesy the faulty metering status and impairments arising due to improper feeder segregation.

CIRC will do a comprehensive study for the state of West Bengal to find out the following:
1. Regional power demand build up and drivers-split based on State-level basis
2. Assess the “Power deficit” and power demand-supply scenario for West Bengal
3. Understand the variable dynamics of power industry under changing the regulatory paradigm
4. Design a factor analysis framework to determine latent power demand through the identification of critical parameters and assigning the right weights.