EFFECTS OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS ON COMPETITION IN INDIA

Competition law typically considers those merger cases where the main concern is that the merging parties would become so dominant in the market that they will increase the rates they charge the customers. This happens, mostly, because the merged entity has now gained a dominating position, as a consequence of the merger, to manipulate the market. Some mergers, on the other hand, minimize competition thus dropping rates that vendors demand. Thus, mergers and acquisitions have the capacity to hurt competition at both ends- from where the merged entity buys, and where it sells and this they can do in varied ways. Merger and Acquisitions can be anti-competitive where they include trends like limiting output or imposing price, fixing prices between competitors, or sale or supply terms on down the stream intermediaries. Merger and acquisition activity has been on a rise in India, and their impact on competition has led to many changes in the competition law. In this article we would be exploring how the merger and acquisition activity hurts competition and how the law in India has had to change to combat its damaging effects.