A Review Is Needed : Why India’s Antitrust Regulator Should Scrutinize the Facebook-WhatsApp Merger

Posted by Social Science Research Network

A Review Is Needed : Why India’s Antitrust Regulator Should Scrutinize the Facebook-WhatsApp Merger – Avirup Bose (Competition Commission of India)

ABSTRACT: This short article argues why the Competition Commission of India should elect to review the Facebook-WhatsApp merger, even if the transaction does not technically breach the monetary and asset thresholds, prescribed under the provisions of the Indian Competition Act, 2002. In doing so, the article attempts to highlight the existing enforcement gap in the merger control jurisprudence of India and discusses the concept of a catch-all ‘regulatory jurisdiction,’ which should be adopted by the Commission to review mergers having overwhelming public consequences for Indian consumers.