Hub-and-spoke cartels are horizontal arrangements between producers or suppliers located vertically in relation to other players in a market. Those situated horizontally are called the spokes and they engage in concerted anti-competitive action. The hub is vertically situated and colludes with the spoke to produce anti-competitive outcomes. These are often instances of indirect coordination and are difficult to prove in terms of substantive evidence. The primary obstacle in dealing with their...

In 2012, India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) granted a blanket exemption for Vessel Sharing Agreements (“VSAs”) from Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002. Section 3 prohibits any agreement that causes or is likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition (“AAEC”) in the market. A VSA is a collaborative legal arrangement between shipping companies that allows them to share space on a cargo vessel. VSAs constitute a specific form of partnership, distinct from mergers or...

In competition law, monopolists have always been considered the villains – towering giants accused of squeezing rivals, locking in consumers and stifling entry of newbies in the market – but what happens when the villain is not one, but a band of giants who never act in collusion, yet march to the same drumbeat? This is the puzzle of collective dominance that faces most competition authorities in contemporary markets. With oligopolistic markets on the rise, where a group of entities exercise...