Retired cop, former WhatsApp compliance officer among 3 appointments to CCI

The three members include Anil Agrawal, former Director General of Police and former Additional Secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. He worked on various startup initiatives as per the Reuters report.

Sweta Kakkad, former interim chief compliance officer at WhatsApp, and Deepak Anurag who has served at the office of Comptroller and Auditor General are the other two officials appointed as members of the antitrust body.

The fresh appointment will come as a relief for the CCI as many decisions were delayed due to a lack of quorum. In accordance with the regulations, the presence of a quorum is a necessary requirement when considering investigation reports and approving adjudication orders at the CCI. Last year, the commission faced a situation where it couldn’t acknowledge investigation reports due to an insufficient quorum.

Draft rules regarding corporate mergers and acquisitions

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has recently released its draft rules regarding corporate mergers and acquisitions for the purpose of public consultations

The draft rules include a provision concerning the implementation of a newly introduced deal value threshold (DVT), which will necessitate pre-approval from the CCI for transactions exceeding ₹2,000 crore in value. What’s noteworthy is that this ‘deal value’ calculation would encompass the total worth of any investments made in the target company by any entity within the acquirer group over the past two years.

The rethink on the rules on corporate mergers comes following Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, which managed to avoid antitrust examination despite having a deal value of $19 billion.

Updated: 19 Sep 2023, 05:52 PM IST