On March 4, 2011, the Indian Government announced that the provisions of the Competition Act 2002 relating to merger control (Sections 5 and 6) will come into force on June 1, 2011. Notification will be mandatory for transactions meeting the relevant thresholds, and closing without clearance will be prohibited. There is uncertainty as to whether these provisions of the Competition Act 2002 apply only to concentrations that are agreed or announced after that date (or, in addition, apply to concentrations that have been announced, but have not yet closed). The Government’s announcement was preceded by the Indian Competition Commission’s issuance, on March 2, 2011, of draft procedural regulations. As explained in the alert memo, although the draft regulations make a number of important and welcome clarifications, many fundamental matters remain to be clarified.
