The Clash Of Jurisdiction Of CCI And TRAI

Dec 2022
Overlapping Jurisdiction

The Competition Act, 2002 read with section 18 of the legislation delegates to the Competition Commission of India (the “CCI”) the duty of “promoting and sustaining competition” in the Indian economy. This implies that the CCI will have principal jurisdiction to regulate conditions of competition in the relevant market of India.

Whereas, Section 11 of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (the “TRAI Act”) delegates power to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) to “facilitate competition and promote efficiency in the operation of telecommunication services so as to facilitate growth in such services”.

The objective of both the legislation is to create an environment that may facilitate fair competition. In fulfilling the concerned objective, the jurisdiction of TRAI and the CCI overlap. They both differ in their mandate and approach which leads to cases of jurisdictional conflicts. From time to time, in many cases judicial courts have tried to resolve jurisdictional disputes between the two.

Resolving the Jurisdiction Dispute:

Finally, On 5 December 2018, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Competition Commission of India v. Bharti Airtel Limited and Others addressed and settled the issue of the ongoing jurisdictional battle between the CCI and TRAI.

The Supreme Court identified a major issue:
(a) Whether the CCI can exercise its jurisdiction when TRAI is already vested with the same?
The Supreme Court opined as follows:
  • The Supreme Court while passing its judgment opined that the questions regarding interconnection agreements and clauses under the same, quality of services, obligations of the service providers are governed under the TRAI Act. The Competition Act is insufficient to decide and deal with the issues arising out of the provisions of the TRAI Act. Therefore, CCI has no jurisdiction on the present matter.
  • But, the Apex Court denied the contention that TRAI has the sole jurisdiction to deal with the issue excluding CCI. TRAI’s determination that the IDOs were in breach would constitute jurisdictional facts based on which the CCI could exercise its jurisdiction. As TRAI had not determined with finality that the IDOs were in breach of the interconnection agreements and that they had acted in concert, no jurisdictional fact was established to give the CCI jurisdiction.
  • The court similarly held that TRAI, as the sect oral regulator, doesn’t have exclusive jurisdiction to rule on competition-related aspects in the industry. It ruled that if TRAI had determined that the IDOs had formed a cartel or colluded to block Jio’s entry, the CCI then would have jurisdiction to decide whether the IDOs’ actions had an appreciable adverse effect on competition. Thus, the jurisdiction of the CCI is not barred, but simply pushed to a later stage.

The judgment has to be appreciated as it has adopted a pragmatic approach and is a step towards certainty, which is indispensable for the growth of any economic law in the country. This decision was necessary to avoid having a concurrent jurisdiction. Going by this way, a balance will be maintained between TRAI and the CCI.

Trending Blogs
Alibaba IPR Report Shows Ideal Brand Protection Program
As per sources, e-commerce giant, Alibaba group has successfully gained success using intellectual property rights-protection. The giant has been able to offer quality service due to well integration of the latest technological improvements coupled with partnerships with top-rated brands. Also, external stakeholders assisted the giant in offering quality service to proactively monitor, go through rights-holders […]
Read More
Celebrity Rights – Public, Private or Intellectual Property
Celebrity lives are mostly public these days through different sources but they too want to maintain certain privacy. This has triggered the need to maintain celebrity rights on different properties. There are several company options that are selling products with celebrity faces from bags to soaps to cosmetics to many others. It requires suitable celebrity […]
Read More
Patents – An Important Tool for Pharmaceutical Industry
For suitable protection of medical inventions, patents are the perfect option. This would also safeguard medical discoveries that are research-based and it is done by most of the pharmaceutical companies. In return for the protection offered by the patent, it can disclose the research used in coming up with the medical innovation in the pharmaceutical […]
Read More
Why Is Protection of Geographical Indication or Designation of Origin Essential?
Having knowing regarding geographical indication along with designation of origin is something that is of great need these days. Geographical indication or GI indicates a symbol, name or sign relating to a product that corresponds to a definite geographical origin, product’s features, qualities that are due from the origin. To make a sign work as […]
Read More
Protection Folklores India Intellectual Property Rights
India is a land of diversity when it comes to folk and ethnic culture with hundreds of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups with diverse origins and lifestyles that, over time, intermingled in part and remained untouched in parts over centuries. Perception about folklore differs in India, mainly associated with tribals and simple rural people, rather […]
Read More
Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law
What is Artificial Intelligence? The division of Science which deals with making machines equipped with human-like intelligence to act in human-like fashion and the exhibit human capabilities is known as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Multiple disciplines like Computer Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, Mathematics, Biology and Neuron Science contribute to the development of AI. Benefits Of AI […]
Read More
Pharma Companies File 15% of Patents in India
The Indian Pharma industry is primarily known for its Generic Drugs. But recently, to push its value higher in the market, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is investing more in research and development of new drugs along with increasing the potency of the existing ones to move up the value chain. From 2013-2015, out of the […]
Read More
Protection of Acronyms under Trademark Law
It is known that acronyms are the first letters of a long phrase of words combined together. On the other hand, trademark is about a mark that shall help distinguish the product or service of goods or service from the rest of the items. Therefore, it can be said that an acronym can be registered […]
Read More
India dropped to 40th position in International Intellectual Property Index
India has fallen to 40th position in the International Intellectual Property Index. This index helps know about the IP climate in the 53 global economies of the present year. This is as per the report US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center. As per last year’s report, India has been ranked in the 36th […]
Read More
Protection Folklores India Intellectual Property Rights
India is a land of diversity when it comes to folk and ethnic culture with hundreds of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups with diverse origins and lifestyles that, over time, intermingled in part and remained untouched in parts over centuries. Perception about folklore differs in India, mainly associated with tribals and simple rural people, rather […]
Read More
X
Download Firm Profile