Anti-Trust Agreement in Indian Real Estate Sector: A Comparative Legal and Policy Analysis with Us and Canada

Anti-trust law, Competition policy, Real estate sector, Cartelization, Comparative legal analysis, Market regulation

This research paper do a comparative legal and policy analysis of anti-trust agreements in real estate sector in India with the United States and Canada using doctrinal research methodology and case study analysis method to analyse the effectiveness of India’s Competition Act 2002. This paper show that on the one hand, India has a strong legal regime to deal with competition, on the other hand, a lot of challenges are there in enforcement of competition regulation laws particularly in case of real estate sector which involve cartelization of cement manufacturers and builders associations, as can be seen from the Builders Association of India vs Cement Manufacturer Association case and many more such cases like Belaire Owners’ Associations v. DLF Limited. This research is based on five comparative tables analyzing the legislative architecture, enforcement mechanism and sectoral impact of cement cartelization. In major cities, there has been a price rise of 20-40% owing to cement cartelization which transgresses the vision of “Housing for All by 2022”. On the contrary, Competition Commission of India suffers from institutional capacity constraints as shown by its paltry penalty collection of 0.4% unlike Government of US which is backed up by robust enforcement mechanism as seen in Standard Oil break-up and AT&T divestiture including Canada which follows streamlined administrative approach. The study finds crucial gaps like lack of regulatory coordination, sector–specific knowledge and lack of deterrence–related mechanisms. As such this study provides evidence–based recommendation for the establishment of a Cement Regulatory Authority, strengthening the institutional capacity of CCI, implementation of comprehensive whistleblower protection and creation of sector–specific enforcement protocols. Furthermore, this will assist in fair and healthy competition, consumer welfare, and support infrastructure development goals of India. In 2019–20 India’s real estate sector contributed 6.5% to GDP and is also the second–largest employment generator after agriculture.