This article is written by Team LawSikho.

Do you know that a whopping fine of INR 136 crore was levied on Google for anti-trust conduct?

Does it intrigue your curiosity as to why a few months back Competition Commission of India probed OYO and MakeMyTrip over a confidential commercial agreement?

Were you one of those who Googled to know the entire story when Amazon and Flipkart faced an antitrust investigation in India?

In today’s times, be it Jio, Amazon, Zomato, or DLF – all the leading companies seek to dominate their markets in the least possible time period. 

The basic business culture globally rests upon the principle of aggressive growth. This growth has been defying all the rules of fair competition.

Competition law regulates the kinds of business practices, behavior and contracts that such players can execute. While businesses strive to get a stronghold over the market in a particular sector, being able to lead beyond a certain level without violating competition laws involves a degree of tightrope walking. This is where competition lawyers are required. 

Competition law work is divided into two main categories:

• Work related to advising on agreements which are or can be considered anti-competitive, possibility of collaborations being considered cartels and situations that may be considered an abuse of dominant position:

Advisory work and litigation work on these aspects are performed by competition law teams of full-service law firms, boutique competition law firms and lawyers working in in-house legal teams.  Disputes work in this area is also undertaken by independent litigators. 

• Merger control work: 

This includes advisory work on combinations which may have an adverse effect on competition, and is primarily performed in competition law teams of full-service law firms, boutique competition law firms and lawyers working in in-house legal teams.  

Fresh law graduates in competition law teams can be paid as much as INR 15-16 lakhs per annum as starting remuneration. 

Independent practitioners have also started adding competition law verticals to their practice. This is because small and mid-tier establishments that may not be able to afford the services of corporate law firms approach these practitioners who have become adept in undertaking competition law litigations before the CCI and the appellate authorities. They are known to charge higher for a competition law case then other matters depending upon the nature of the case.

Are competition law textbooks enough?

You will be surprised to know that there are less than 10 effective commentaries on competition law in India. The focus of such commentaries is to teach the statute, regulations and case laws. They are great as reference materials for practitioners who want to find a citation or two but are not effective in teaching the practice of competition law. 

However, our focus in the course we are set to launch is to teach you the work that lawyers actually perform for their clients. 

Competition law as a subject has always been introduced as a segment of M&A in the curriculum. Gradually, all major law colleges of the country have included it as a separate elective and there is a massive requirement of eligible faculty to fill up the posts of competition law faculties. 

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This is because the subject is technical, complex and requires a good knowledge of business economics. Therefore, the expertise, given the nascent legislation, is in short supply. Merger control is an area of competition law where colleges will not be able to provide effective training. This is why professionals mostly learn it on the job, when they are already faced with deadlines.

So, what are we launching?

To cater to these gaps in the specialization, we are excited to launch Certificate Course In Competition Law, Practice And Enforcement. This is an executive certificate course with 1 online live class per week, printed study materials at your disposal, doubt clearance within 24 hours and a lot of other benefits which you can find on the course page with details.

The course has been priced at INR 15,000, if you enroll until 30th January 2020. The price of the course will increase to INR 20,000 starting 1st February 2020.

But before anything else, let us tell you some facts about this course!

What is unique about the course? 

We begin by introducing the concepts and then the various kinds of documentation that is involved in this litigation. We would be dissecting the provisions of the Competition Act (the Act) to explain how the CCI, NCLAT (appellate body) and the Supreme Court of India interpret its provisions and how they need to be applied while preparing documents before the CCI. 

The first segment of the exercises will be mostly research based and will make you proficient in conducting competition law research in terms of case laws and research papers which is usually 50% of the work. The second segment of the exercises will train you in drafting the most important documents which are filed before the CCI.

In the process of learning how to draft various documents, you will also be exposed to expert guidance with respect to preparing pleadings before the CCI, NCLAT and the Supreme Court. In high profile competition matters, senior advocates are engaged where competition lawyers act as briefing counsel to them. You will be given an insight into what goes into briefing these senior counsels and the preparation involved. 

Are you someone who can benefit from our first launch of 2020?

• Most of the law firms have a separate hiring process for competition law teams. They do not hire in the same way as the corporate team. Therefore, if you want a job or an internship in a competition law firm or the competition law team of a corporate law firm, you must demonstrate that you have relevant skill-sets.  Lawyers or law students, after having taken this course will find it easier to specifically apply for competition law teams of top corporate law firms, such as Shardul Amarchand and Mangaldas, Cyril Amarchand and Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, Trilegal, Luthra & Luthra, Khaitan, Talwar Thakore and Associates, Pathak and Associates, etc.
• Lawyers practicing in corporate, commercial or M&A teams will benefit from this course as they would be able to interact with competition law teams fairly easily on complex issues, especially in global transactions. 
• Students who want to pursue competition law in their masters would be benefitted as they would have gained a wholesome knowledge of the local jurisdiction which would be applicable in their further studies. The advantage of competition law is that the substantive law is mostly similar across jurisdictions and therefore it will not be very difficult to grasp core concepts once there is proficiency in local law. The procedure may, however, differ from country to country. Students can go on to apply for research positions in these universities.
• Professionals can apply for the position of “researcher” in think tanks like Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) which have a huge requirement for legal researchers in competition law as they are constantly monitoring the legislation. People working in such jobs earn around INR 40,000 to INR 50,000 per month as freshers and up to INR 1 Lakh as mid or senior level people.  

Need more reasons to enroll? Here is a list of weekly exercises you can benefit from in this Executive Certificate course:

• Drafting an “Information”;
• Drafting a legal opinion with respect to exclusive vertical agreements;
• Drafting a legal opinion with respect to vertical agreements entered into by technology companies; 
• Drafting pleadings before the NCLAT on behalf of the Appellant; 
• Drafting an advisory note with respect to resale price maintenance; 
• Drafting an advisory note with respect to the investigation orders passed by the CCI under Section 26(1); 
• Preparing arguments for defending a case of Bid-Rigging;
• Drafting a legal opinion with respect to a hub and spoke cartel; 
• Drafting a legal opinion advising clients on provisions relating to an abuse of dominant position under the Act;
• Conducting the exercise of delineation of a relevant market;
• Learning the application of Target Based Exemptions; 
• Learning the application of Parties Test;
• Preparing a legal opinion on minority investments; 
• Identifying relevant markets for merger transactions;  
• Preparing a writing assignment on Group Boycotts;
• Preparing a writing assignment on Essential Facility Doctrine; 
• Prepare a writing assignment on the assessment of the appreciable adverse effect on competition for merger transactions.

We are sure if you are still reading, you would be having questions relating to the course. Our team is there to help. 

Just comment below or give us a call at 011-4084-5203 for a free career counseling session by one of our experts!

And do not forget to go through the details of the course from the course page here.

Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skill.