Has the Competition Act changed the way in-house CI is done by companies in India?

[Varsha Chitale]

The Competition Commission of India can now choose to scrutinize all external communication of individual employees, particularly in companies that are dominant in their markets. What does this mean for the CI analyst?

http://blog.valuenotes.biz/look-who%e2%80%99s-watching-you%e2%80%a6

Look forward to your comments

[Kush Mukherji]

I suppose, as long as the CI analyst adheres to the ethics in his mode & style of communication, the CCI's decision shouldn't be much of a problem. That's what smart CI is all about- to know without letting other know !! ....Am I missing any key caveat here by any chance, Varsha ??

[Varsha Chitale]

Hi Kush

CCI is not directly concerned with competitive intelligence. They are worried about collusion between competitors and companies pushing their distributors around on pricing. Companies that are dominant in their industry are/seem worried that if they contact their competitors/ distributors for doing CI, CCI may object - as the interaction could be miscontrued as efforts to collude/ influence price.

Varsha

[Nimalan]

Hello there Varsha:

First of, I think it would mean more business for CI consulting firms as companies would now think twice about contacting their counterparts to gather information.

Second, I would think that it makes it just a little bit more difficult for CI analysts in these consulting firms to probe for information - especially from the bigger companies if these companies had sufficiently educated all their employees about this act. But then, CI analysts always tend to find sources and methods to elicit the required info.

However, am curious if consulting firms can use client confidentiality agreements so that employees of these big companies can always say they never knew this information would go to their competitor. Also much of the information we elicit looks pretty "harmless" on the surface so not sure if the CCI can really catch on to ti.

Nimalan

[Varsha Chitale]

Hi Nimalan

I think you are spot on on all three points.

I too am not sure to what extent CCI will be able to pin down companies on information flows. I do believe though, that companies that are dominant in their industry will at least take cosmetic measures to demonstrate that they have a compliance programs in place!

Varsha