The CCI (Commitment) Regulations, 2024

Section 48B permits an enterprise facing an inquiry into a vertical agreement or an abuse of dominance to offer commitments early, before the Director General reports. The Commitment Regulations, which came into force on 6 March 2024, supply the procedure. The mechanism differs from settlement in three ways that matter: it comes earlier, it involves no payment, and it closes the proceeding without any finding, because the investigation has not yet produced one.

1. Who May Apply, and When

1. The applicant must be an enterprise against which an inquiry has been initiated under Section 26(1) for contravention of Section 3(4) or Section 4; cartels are excluded by the section.
2. The window opens with the direction to investigate and closes before the Director General's report is received. The regulations fix a definite number of days from the order under Section 26(1) within which the application must be filed, which is the feature the amendment of 2026 altered.
3. Partial applications. Where the application relates to some only of the contraventions noted in the order under Section 26(1), the inquiry continues in respect of the remainder.

2. The Commitment Proposal

• Content. A description of the conduct under inquiry, the commitments offered, the manner and timeline of implementation, the period for which the commitments will be maintained, and the mechanism for reporting compliance.
• Character of the remedy. Behavioural rather than monetary: changes to contractual terms, cessation of a practice, grant of access, alteration of a ranking or pricing practice, removal of an exclusivity or a parity clause, and undertakings as to future conduct.
• No admission. The applicant does not admit a contravention, and the proceeding ends without one being found.
• Fee and verification as prescribed.

3. Procedure

1. Preliminary consideration by the Commission of whether the application is maintainable and whether the commitments offered are capable of addressing the concerns identified in the order under Section 26(1).
2. Consultation. The Commission may invite objections and suggestions from the parties and from stakeholders, and in a significant matter will ordinarily do so, since the adequacy of a behavioural remedy is best tested by those who deal with the enterprise.
3. Modification. The Commission may require the proposal to be modified, and the applicant may revise it within the period allowed.
4. Decision. If accepted, an order recording the commitments and closing the proceeding; the order is not appealable. If rejected, the investigation continues from the stage it had reached.
5. Confidentiality, inspection and copies are dealt with by reference to the General Regulations, with the modifications the Commitment Regulations specify.

4. Implementation, Monitoring and Revocation

The order specifies the period of the commitments and the reporting required, and the Commission may appoint an independent monitoring agency under the General Regulations, 2024. Section 48C permits revocation where the applicant fails to comply, where a disclosure in the application was untrue in a material particular, or where there has been a material change in the facts; on revocation the inquiry is restored. Because a commitment order involves no payment and no finding, the possibility of revocation is the only thing that makes it binding, and the monitoring provisions carry correspondingly more weight than in a settlement.

5. Related Topics and Provisions