This article is written by Preeti Pallavi Jena, from the school of law, KIIT University, Odisha. This article talks about the competition law in global and what are the opportunities available for the competition lawyers.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Many people think that competition is limited, but it is extensive in nature. The US and EU provide a lot many opportunities in the field of competition law to the people. Today’s international economy is growing. Improvements in the transportation and communications sector are taking place all over the world. Competition law jobs are given to those people who have the ability to build a better relationship with customers and capture them. Competition law is designed for preventing participants from dominating the marketplace. Nearly 140 countries have competition law in their place in some or other forms.
Scope of competition law outside India
Competition law rules vary from place to place. The rules and regulations of competition law in the US is different from the rules and regulation of competition of India. Hence, even though a person studies abroad and comes back to India after that, then he has to look over the rules regarding competition law which are applicable in India only.
Global companies, organizations face high-cost value when they try to establish the rules of competition law from one place to another. This costs them hugely and affects them. As we very well know that competition law is of two kinds, the merger control and antitrust. Hence, the fees for filing the merger are one of the components which is very costly but people are still expected to provide such amounts because the law is very complex.
The competition law, which is regulated in the US and EU, brought Chicago School economics where the best economists deal with the most complicated competition problems and assessments. Day by day, the complexity of the assessments is increasing, the charges with regard to that also increase. But the people are also willingly paying the costs even though it is a huge amount because there are people who understand and very well know about the complexity of the law.
But there is one more problem with this competition law. Even though the lawyer charges such huge amounts there is no guarantee for reaching the outcomes. This often disheartened the customers that even after giving such an amount of money the case was still not in their favour.
But in a few years, the competition law practice has made huge growth in both national and international levels. The most reputed, top law firms have considered strong competition practice teams as a part. Previous competition law was limited to only Tier-I law firms but now it is no more restricted to that.
Opportunities for lawyers
Independent practitioners
Since independent practitioners require more hard work and are more technical hence many independent practitioners avoid practising in this area. Though there are also many independent practitioners who go for these matters by defending the other parties, and co-operation. Example: Ms Nidhi Singh represents the All India Online Vendors Association. These independent practitioners always start with small teams for the competition law. They also hire junior level advocates for helping them in the matters which are required. Here there is more scope for contributions with respect to the matters before the authorities and hence these are not like the Tier I and Tier II law firms.
These independent practitioners generally don’t go for transactional issues because these matters consist of teams of competition law for practice. But the interns or junior advocates who get a chance for working with independent practitioners experience a good level of knowledge on the concept of competition law, get a better understanding with respect to the law and learn practical practices in the litigation forms. When the competition lawyers start working in any law firm they start acquiring or gaining knowledge on the competition law and after that, they prefer to become independent practitioners dealing with practical matters on their individual basis. Mr. Rahul Rai is a person who was a partner in the AZB & Partners law firms but now he is an off-counsel of the team and he had started dealing with his own independent matters.
Tier-I and Tier-II law firms
All the higher-level transactions like the transactions of mergers and acquisitions and the matters of enforcement come to either Tier-I or Tier-II law firms. Hence the competition lawyer appreciates these firms and practices competition law with teams. All the general corporate teams are mostly concerned with the job of the competition law teams for making sure the transactions made require the permission of the CCI or not.
If it was found that the team requires approval from the CCI, then teams can go for short-form-I or inclusive long form-II which consists of all the information details of the transactions. But the main responsibility of the team is to convince the CCI by providing the assurance that the transactions will not cause any damage or bad impact on the market and hence ask for the grant of permission. Till the time the permission or approval is not provided to these teams, they keep on working with the CCI like they do continuous paperwork, drafts, hearings, etc.
One of the most popular or known transactions is ‘the Vodafone-idea merger’ but this also requires approval from the CCI, without it the teams cannot go for any transactions because it becomes illegal. In the case of the enforcements, the information is filed against the agreements which are anti-competitive and also in abuse of dominant position. The competition lawyers can file complaints from the complainant. They also try to save the party by defending the opposite party. But all these are high stake matters. For example Indian railway, cement cartel, Intel, etc. These all need the best teams for the practice of competition law.
Policy researcher
There are many people in this field who don’t want to go for a career in litigation but have good knowledge about the subject. It is the legislation that is still growing and changing with the new amendments made with regard to the competition law.
Professionals are supported and encouraged for applying in organizations and like the Jindal Institute for Regulation and Competition (JIRICO), CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition, etc. If you work in these organizations, it develops your knowledge regarding the competition law and it also helps you in knowing different concepts like Intellectual property rights and economics. In the field of competition law, much research is conducted, new training programs conducted along with many more conferences are held in this law for gaining better ideas regarding this concept.
Working with senior advocates
There are many senior advocates dealing with competition law in various law firms. Some of the names of those senior advocates are as follows:
- Mr. Abhisek Manu Singhvi
- Mr. Salman Khurshi
- Rajshekhar Rao
These lawyers are highly qualified with respect to competition law.
Working with these senior advocates helps the students who want to practice in litigation law firms on competition laws and also to the ones who want to study abroad for higher degree courses because they can get a recommendation letter from these senior advocates and it will definitely help them in achieving their goals. These are the topmost lawyers and working with them makes you learn plenty of things regarding the competition law like about various research works, recognizing the loopholes in the drafts which would have been presented by the teams without the knowledge of the problems in it. But the lawyers who are working under the senior advocates or with them must have greater knowledge with respect to the competition law field.
In house departments in new-age companies
This is the recent area that creates an attack on CCI for the e-commerce companies and the new aged technology that we use. Example: Facebook has created a team for dealing with competition violation of privacy and data sharing matters. The house departments consider the impact and security of the companies. Hence, competition lawyers are also preferred for handling new-age companies like Facebook. This was initiated by the United States and now it is developing in almost all countries over the world. This in-house counsel must have a higher knowledge with respect to competition law and if they do not have, are requested for learning the basics of this law. Companies like Amazon & OYO are in huge demand in India. Counsel are hired for their departments by those who have skill and knowledge regarding the competition law.
Research associates in CCI
People who want to go for the adjudication consider being research associates. Working for the competition commission of India is tough and you must have a clear understanding of the approach of regulating bodies while deciding case laws. Many lawyers can go for research associates. They will have research studies in a particular matter and help in drafting the orders for the CCI ongoing or progressive matters.
The CCI always puts advertisements on which basis they hire people to work. They put advertisements regarding the interviews and remuneration processes which will be conducted while hiring someone. They select a student for the position of research associates not only on the experiences he had gained and educational qualifications (though these are very essential and are also considered) but also with the way he presents himself in the interview and all these components will combine considered to see his overall performance and then if he satisfies all grounds gets selected for this position by the CCI.
Once these students start working for CCI, they come to learn a lot more practical work and knowledge with respect to research associate positions, and after that many law firms approach them for hiring them because now they have a better idea for determining which and what approach the CCI can take in merger and enforcement matters.
The facility in law institutes
People who do not want to work in law firms can opt for faculty in the law institutes because there is a great need of knowing about the competition law because there are less than 200 competition lawyers in our country right now. Hence more people are required in this field for development.
Practical knowledge and practice are very much required in our country and for that, the learning process should be an effective one and this will be only possible if good teachers will be there to make us learn and also train us. There are also very few colleges that separately teach competition law as a subject but in global, this is not the scenario, they provide more opportunities there.
Some of the top law firms in India
Law firms that deal with competition law in India:
- Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas
- AZB & Partners
- Trilegal
- Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
- Khaitan & Co.
- Talwar Thakore associates.
BRICS Competition Regimes
The Agenda for the Doha Round negotiations throughout the WTO (World Trade Organisation) saw the need for developing global competition rules but it uninhibited. The recent global competition law regimes are reported by the global convergences. The rise of the BRICS was having an impact on the economy globally and is also the attention of the competition laws in these countries. BRICS consists or refers to countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.
Development of BRICS countries through competition law
Brazil
The very first anti-monopoly law was adopted in 1962 and it discovered the administrative council for economic defence which was not first complemented by the competition policy and the enforcement powers. The recent Brazilian competition protection came in 2012 when the competition act of Brazil consolidated the institutional structures.
Russia
The anti-monopoly for the Russian Federation was made in the 1990s for the countries’ economic transactions. In 1997, this committee was renamed the state anti-monopoly. Then later the powers and functions of this anti-monopoly got shifted to the ministry for the anti-monopoly policy and the support to entrepreneurship was abolished in 2004 and a Federal anti-monopoly service was invented.
India
The first anti-monopoly law was adopted in 1969 named the MRTP Act( The Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Act). An amendment made and a new act came known as the Competition Act,2002 in December, and also the CCI(Competition Commission of India) was established. This CCI contains a chairperson and six commissioners.
China
China was the biggest country to place the anti-monopoly regime with BRICS. It was published in 2007. The state council established 3 main agencies for guiding and organizing the anti-monopoly work and they are
- The National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC)
- The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)
- The State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC)
South Africa
From all the BRICS nations, South Africa established the national competition law rule first which should be followed by the 1955 Regulation of Monopolistic Conditions Act. The power of decision making with regard to Trade and Industry was in the hands of the Minister of Trade and Industry and the board had no individual powers for making the investigation or supervising it.
Conclusion
Competition law is in huge demand but maintaining it is very difficult because it is complex in nature. The government should also consider the new and relevant approaches which are taking place at the international level. Our government should enforce some approaches in India also. As the demand for competitive lawyers is increasing globally, more opportunities should be provided in our country India also for the better development of the economy. By this, the complexity can be solved in the future in an easier manner. And if there will be more number of lawyers in this field the paid money or charges will be lower as compared to now.
References
- https://blog.ipleaders.in/competition-law-career-opportunities/
- https://blog.ipleaders.in/opportunities-in-competition-law/
- https://www.legal500.com/c/india/antitrust-and-competition/
- https://superlawyer.in/tag/competition/
- https://targetjobs.co.uk/career-sectors/law-solicitors/290499-eu-competition-law-area-of-practice
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