Section Text
1[(1) No enterprise or association of enterprises or personor association of persons shall enter into any agreement in respect ofproduction, supply, distribution, storage, acquisition or control of goods orprovision of services, which causes or is likely to cause an appreciableadverse effect on competition within India.
(2) Any agreement entered into in contravention of theprovisions contained in subsection (7) shall be void.
(3) Any agreement entered into between enterprises orassociations of enterprises or persons or associations of persons or betweenany person and enterprise or practice carried on, or decision taken by, anyassociation of enterprises or association of persons, including cartels,engaged in identical or similar trade of goods or provision of services,which--
(a) directly or indirectly determines purchase or saleprices;
(b) limits or controls production, supply, markets,technical development, investment or provision of services;
(c) shares the market or source of production or provisionof services by way of allocation of geographical area of market, or type ofgoods or services, or number of customers in the market or any other similarway;
(d) directly or indirectly results in bid rigging orcollusive bidding, shall be presumed to have an appreciable adverse effect oncompetition:
Provided that nothing contained in this sub-sectionshall apply to any agreement entered into by way of joint ventures if suchagreement increases efficiency in production, supply, distribution, storage,acquisition or control of goods or provision of services.
Explanation.--For the purposes of this sub-section,"bid rigging" means any agreement, between enterprises or personsreferred to in sub-section (3) engaged in identical or similar production ortrading of goods or provision of services, which has the effect of eliminatingor reducing competition for bids or adversely affecting or manipulating theprocess for bidding.
(4) Any agreement amongst enterprises or persons atdifferent stages or levels of the production chain in different markets, inrespect of production, supply, distribution, storage, sale or price of, ortrade in goods or provision of services, including ---
(a) tie-in arrangement;
(b) exclusive supply agreement;
(c) exclusive distribution agreement;
(d) refusal to deal;
(e) resale price maintenance,
shall be an agreement incontravention of sub-section (1) if such agreement causes or is likely to causean appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.
Explanation.--For the purposes of this sub-section,-
(a) "tie-in arrangement" includes any agreementrequiring a purchaser of goods, as a condition of such purchase, to purchasesome other goods;
(b) "exclusive supply agreement" includes anyagreement restricting in any manner the purchaser in the course of his tradefrom acquiring or otherwise dealing in any goods other than those of the selleror any other person;
(c) "exclusive distribution agreement" includesany agreement to limit, restrict or withhold the output or supply of any goodsor allocate any area or market for the disposal or sale of the goods;
(d) "refusal to deal" includes any agreementwhich restricts, or is likely to restrict, by any method the persons or classesof persons to whom goods are sold or from whom goods are bought;
(e) "resale price maintenance" includes anyagreement to sell goods on condition that the prices to be charged on theresale by the purchaser shall be the prices stipulated by the seller unless itis clearly stated that prices lower than those prices may be charged.
(5) Nothing contained in this section shall restrict--
(i) the right of any person to restrain any infringementof, or to impose reasonable conditions, as may be necessary for protecting anyof his rights which have been or may be conferred upon him under--
(a) the Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957);
(b) the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970);
(c) the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 (43 of 1958)or the Trade Marks Act, 1999 (47 of 1999);
(d) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registrationand Protection)Act, 1999(48 of 1999),
(e) the Designs Act, 2000 (16 of 2000);
(f) the Semi-conductor Integrated Circuits Layout-DesignAct, 2000 (37 of 2000);
(ii) the right of any person to export goods from India tothe extent to which the agreement relates exclusively to the production, supply, distribution or control of goods or provision of services for suchexport.]
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1. Effective date :20th May 2009- notified vide Ministry of Corporate Affairs Notification No S.O.1241(E) dated 15.05.2009.