ABUSE OF DOMINANCE‌

A

situation when a dominant firm/company (or a group of firms) is engaged in promoting its market position through ‘anti-competitive’ business practices, such as—predatory pricing, price squeezing, charging

unreasonable prices, etc. Such practices hamper healthy competition in the economy and non-dominant firms face difficulties in their growth—they finally may shut down their operations. In recent times, it was in news globally—the US company Microsoft was facing litigation (under ‘anti-trust’ provision) for its Windows Operating System.

Though India used to regulate/restrict several such practices (under the MRTP Act, 1969), exact use of the term ‘abuse of dominance’ was not in practice. But the Competiton Act, 2002 (which replaced the MRTP Act) has clear use of it—it defines such situation in clear terms.