The provisions of the Competition Act, 2002 (“Act”) relating to the regulation of combinations as well as the Combination Regulations have been in force with effect from 1^st June 2011.

The Combination Regulations were amended twice on 23^rd  February 2012 and 4^th  April 2013, with a view to relax filing requirements in respect of transactions not likely to raise competition concerns, provide certainty, reduce compliance requirements and make filings simpler. In continuation of these efforts, the CCI has further amended the Combination Regulations on 28^th March 2014 to, inter alia, simplify and provide greater clarity on the application of the combination provisions of the Act and the Combination Regulations.

The highlights of the recent amendments in the Combination Regulations are as under:

• To provide greater certainty on the requirement of filing notice, it has been clarified that the notification requirement shall be determined with respect to the substance of the transaction and structure of transaction(s) having the effect of avoiding notice shall be disregarded;
• Item (10) of Schedule I is deleted with a view to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty regarding insufficient local nexus and effect on markets in India;
• Considering the nature of cases and the resources deployed by the Commission, as well as the assistance provided to parties, it has been decided to revise the fee, from INR 10,00,000 to INR 15,00,000 for Form I, and from INR 40,00,000 to INR 50,00,000 for Form II;
• It has been decided to delete regulation 29 which was perceived to impose an additional condition in respect of preferring appeal in matters relating to combinations; and
• Similar to Form I, now the regulations do not require verification on each page of Form II.

Consistent with the international best practices, CCI has been offering informal pre-notification consultation with its staff on the procedural issues relating to filing of notice. Considering the experience of more than two and half years of enforcement and the requirements of stakeholders, it has been decided to expand the scope of consultation to include substantive issues regarding filing of notice with CCI. This measure is expected to benefit the parties with appropriate guidance on the requirements of combination provisions of the Act and the Combination Regulations. .As before, the pre-filing consultation would continue to be informal & verbal and the consultations offered would not be deemed to be the opinion of the Commission in any manner whatsoever or binding on the CCI.

Combination filing requirements clarified: substance over form and expanded informal pre-filing consultation to guide notices. Amendments emphasize substance over form for the notification requirement, disregard structures meant to avoid filing, delete an ambiguous Schedule I entry on local nexus, remove an additional appellate condition, relax page-by-page verification for Form II, revise filing charges, and expand informal, nonbinding pre-filing consultation to include substantive guidance on notice preparation.