The question is what is an Anti-competitive agreement, to answer

this you can say an Anti-competitive agreement is an agreement

having appreciable adverse effect on the competition (AAEC). Anti-
competitive agreements include but are not limited to because the act
is not giving an exhaustive list but an inclusive list e.g. Agreement to
limit production or supply agreement to allocate markets agreement to
fix price conditional sale, conditional purchase, tie-in arrangements,
exclusive supply arrangement, exclusive distribution arrangement,
resale price maintenance all this you can cite as ACA, apart from this
as you already know what are horizontal agreements, what are vertical
arrangements, rule of reason, per-se rule. So, you may cite these also
as examples to support your answers. So, the way you write its totally
dependent on your way of thinking on how you proceed to answer the
questions.

The Background of Competition Act (2002):

We had an MRTP Act before the Competition Act came in, to have a
recap of that The MRTP Act (1969) was with the objective that it
aims to provide that the operation of the economic system does not
result in the concentration of economic power to the common
detriment for the control of monopoly, the prohibition of monopolistic
trade practices and matters connected or incidental to it. This is the
Preamble of the act which I have stated, looking at the preamble of
the act this becomes very relevant to notice that this act was in the
very nature of curbing, controlling or restricting. Whereas if we
compare it to the Modern Competition Law, we will find a difference,
to understand the modern CA refer to a few things that had been done
to have this MCA. The MRTP Act that was enacted on the
recommendations of the Monopolies Enquiry Committee and was
sought to provide structural remedies and was attempted to control
monopolistic behaviour since it was presumed that size beyond a
threshold would affect competition adversely, this was the thinking of
that time. In 1984 The Sachar committee was appointed to suggest
some necessary changes in The MRTP Act to make it more effective.
It sought to include unfair trade practices like misleading
advertisement practices into the existing laws since it was convinced
that the consumers had no protection against such acts. Later on, the
economic reforms in 1990 which took place in the pursuit of
globalization and international economic development. The MRTP
Act’s provisions became outdated and obsolete, in certain aspects
relating to competition laws and so there was a need to shift our focus
from that curbing restricting monopolies to promoting fair and free
competition, to provide a level playing field to all market players be it
public or private. So, it was not restricting but it was giving a platform
to be more competitive, the question is how to regulate this
competition because if you provide a level playing field free from
restriction ,it is presumed that the enterprises may adopt some anti-
competitive practices that will effect the competition. So, if we look at
the background the 1st step is to have a competitive policy in India is
said to have taken in pursuance of WTO Singapore ministerial
declaration in 1996. An expert group was setup by union ministry of
commerce in 1997 to study issues related to the interaction including
anti-competitive practices, mergers, amalgamations. The group
suggested the enactment of the competition Law and recommended
harmonization of competition principles, policies and competition law
enforcement procedures. In his speech the then Finance Minister said
“ The MRTP act has become obsolete in certain areas in light of
international economic developments relating to competition laws so
we need to shift a focus from curbing monopolies to promoting
competition, govt has decided to appoint a committee to examine
these range of issues and promote a modern competitive law suitable
for these conditions” based on these words a high level committee
was setup under the chairmanship of SVS Raghavan also known as
Raghavan committee which laid great emphasis on competition
advocacy role for the competition authority, the report was submitted
on 2000, which gave birth to modern competitive law in the name of
Competition Act 2002. It also recommended further reforms in govt
policies as the foundation of competition police and laws. The fore-
end break of economic liberalisation and widespread economic
reforms in 1991 this act is an attempt to move from a command and
control regime to a regime based on free market principles. Before
India decided to replace its existing MRTP act and it was repealed
and the MRTP commission was also dissolved and the members were
transferred to CCI and this AC 2002 had been enacted to meet the
ends of the economic conditions internationally and nationally. It
came to ensure healthy competition in an economy, it resulted into
higher economic efficiency and enhancement of consumer welfare by
providing number of choices at reasonable, affordable and cheap
prices. The whole law was mainly concerned with securing consumer
interest and maintaining economic efficiency by ensuring
competitiveness in the market. The preamble offered new laws stating
“It shall be the duty of the commission to eliminate practices having
adverse effect on the commission to promote competition, protect the
interest of the consumer and endure freedom of trade by other
participants in marker in India. Few other concepts in the Preamble
are Adverse Effect on Competition (AEC), what is promoting and
sustaining competition, consumer interest, freedom of trade. Kindly
go through the notes on these topics. The aim and duty of the
competition commission of India is stated in the preamble.
Competition Commission as a body is responsible to secure those
aims and objectives, go through the duties of the Competition
Commission.
Short Answer Questions:

1. What is competition?
The world bank defines competition as a situation in a market in
which the buyers or sellers independently strive for a buyer’s
patronage in order to achieve a particular business objective for
e.g. Profit sales or market share as you know that there id no
definition of competition under the competition act itself but
CCI explains competition in their advocacy roles like
competition in common parlance means that sellers
independently strive for a buyer’s patronage to maximise profit
 or in order to achieve a particular business objective. A buyer
prefers to buy a product to maximise his benefits whereas the
sellers propose to sell the product at a price that maximises his
profit. You can cite other examples, case laws to support your
answer.

2. Why do we need competition in the market?

Competition now is almost universally acknowledged as the best
means of ensuring that consumers have access to the broadest
range of services at the most competitive prices, producers will
have max incentive to innovate, reduce their cost and meet
consumer demand. Competition thus promotes allocative and
productive efficiency but all this requires healthy market
condition and govt across the globe are increasingly trying to
remove market imperfections through appropriate regulations to
promote competition. As competition can be fair and unfair, fair
competition is that you have a level playing field and everybody
is being allowed to enter into the market, businesses without
being restricted, whereas unfair competition means adoption of
practices such as collusive price fixing, deliberate reduction in
output in order, to increase prices, creation of barriers to entry,
allocation of markets, discriminatory prices, predatory pricing
etc.

3. What constitutes abuse of dominance?

Dominance refers to a pos. of strength which enables the
enterprise to operate independently of competitive forces or to
affect its competitors or consumers or markets in its favour.
Abuse of dominant pos. impedes fair competition between
firms, exploits consumers, makes it difficult for other players to
compete. Abuser dominant pos. includes imposing unfair
conditions of price, predatory pricing, limiting production,
creating barriers to entry, applying dissimilar conditions to
similar transactions, denying market access, using dominant pos.
in one market to gain advantage in another market. You may
 explain predatory pricing in detail in this answer, can give the
examples of various cases e.g., the Jio case and mention the
issue in that case to support your answer.

4. What are the functions of CCI?

It shall prohibit anti-competitive agreements, abuse of
dominance and also regulate combinations like mergers,
acquisition and amalgamations through a process of
investigation or enquiry.
It shall give opinion on competition issues on reference received
from an authority established under any law like statutory
authorities, central govt. or state govt. the very important
function of CCI is that it is mandated to undertake competition
advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on
competition issues. You can add the particular sections of the
act, cite some cases depending upon the class discussion.