New Delhi [India], December 5 (ANI): Competition Commission of India Acting Chairperson Sangeeta Verma on Monday stressed on the need for competition agencies to develop innovative perspectives on how to apply the existing instruments suitably and devise new tools, where necessary.

She said this in the context of the rapidly changing and evolving digital landscape that is posing new challenges for competition law enforcers and questioning the traditional parameters of competition regulation. The Acting Chairperson spoke after she and Deputy Head of Delegation of the EU to India and Bhutan Seppo Nurmi inaugurated the fifth edition of the European Union-India Competition Week.

The Competition Week is scheduled to be held during 5-7 December 2022.

The chairperson appreciated the relevance of the competition week for capacity building of CCI officers and also highlighted the ongoing cooperation between CCI and Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission under an agreement signed by the two authorities in November 2013, according to a statement released by Competition Commission of India on Monday.

Further, she pointed out that this technical cooperation programme has provided a platform for dialogue and exchange of good practices between competition authority officials and experts from the EU and India. She remarked that the topics on the agenda are not only of great contemporary relevance and significance but also quite futuristic.

The practical insights shared by experts from the EU in designing and implementing their digital regulations will lead to very engaging discussions, she added.

The Deputy Head of the EU delegation, Nurmi, highlighted the India-EU relations that date back to the early-1960s.

In reference to the agenda items to be covered in the ongoing India-EU Competition Week, he stated that topics such as experiences in applying antitrust laws to the digital economy/markets, the introduction of the EU's Digital Markets Act, investigating hub-and-spoke agreements and other atypical cartels and competition law and sustainable co-operation; are timely for sharing the views of EU experts.

He further stated that the 5th India-EU Competition Week provides a platform to share views from two key economies on antitrust action in digital and technology markets as the economies attempt to find answers to these challenges and provide an opportunity to discuss how regulation can supplement competition enforcement, as the EU has set the Digital Markets Act in motion.

A short meeting on the sidelines of the competition week was also held between the deputy head of the EU delegation and chairperson, CCI, along with the secretary and other officials. (ANI)