MCA plans to introduce ‘leniency plus’ regime to crack down on cartels

Last Updated22/02/2024

The Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA) has notified the introduction of ‘Leniency plus’ regime.

It will paving the way for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to roll out a new Cartel detecting tool that is expected to revolutionise Anti Trus lot enforcement in the country.
Under the regime, companies under investigation for one cartel would be encouraged to report other unknown cartels to CCI.
Such a programme helps competition authorities to discover secret cartels and to obtain insider evidence of the infringement.

Leniency plus is a proactive antitrust enforcement strategy
It is aimed at attracting leniency applications by encouraging companies already under investigation for one cartel to report other cartels unknown to the competition regulator.
The benefit:
- Reduction of penalty in the first cartel to the person disclosing the information, without prejudice to the company obtaining a lesser penalty regarding the newly disclosed cartel.
While the Competition Act provides a framework for CCI to deal with leniency or lesser penalty applications, it until recently did not recognise leniency plus.

CCI had, in the last year, issued draft Lesser Penalty regulations.
The draft regulations offer leniency applications in an ongoing cartel inquiry the incentive to disclose the details of another unrelated cartel.
A leniency plus regime is expected to further incentivize applicants to come forward with disclosures regarding multiple cartels, thereby enabling the CCI to save time and resources on cartel investigation.
This regime is already recognised in jurisdictions like the UK, US, Singapore and Brazil.