The extent to which a country succeeds in enforcing its competition legislation is dependent as much on the interaction between the adopted competition system and the pre-existing legal system of the country as it is on the performance of the competition authority established by the adopted legislation. This chapter examines the extent and nature of interactions between the adopted competition enforcement systems and pre-existing legal systems in India and Pakistan by evaluating the petitions filed from orders of the CCI and CCP before the general courts in their countries. The chapter demonstrates that the nature and quality of these interactions has a discernible impact on competition enforcement in these countries. It argues that the interactions between the Indian and Pakistani competition legislations and the pre-existing legal systems in India and Pakistan are largely shaped in part by the strategies, mechanisms, and institutions through which the countries had initially adopted their respective competition legislation and the compatibility and legitimacy generated in the process. It further argues that the nature of these interactions determines the extent of competition enforcement in the country and the pace at which the adopted legislation integrates with the country’s pre-existing legal system.

Sanctions are not only central to competition law enforcement for their punitive and deterrent value but are also important indicators of the successful performance of competition law authorities. The Indian and Pakistani competition legislations empower the CCI and CCP to impose both monetary and behavioural sanctions as appropriate, and in the years they have been operational, both authorities have utilised the full range of these powers, albeit with varying success. This chapter examines the penal strategies of the CCI and the CCP as manifested in the sanctions and penalties that they have imposed over time, and argues that these strategies as well as the extent to which the CCI and CCP have succeeded in recovering the penalties are directly impacted by the compatibility and legitimacy generated in the adoption process, and indirectly impacted by the establishment of success of these countries in adopting the competition enforcement infrastructure envisaged in the adopted legislations.

An analysis of the orders of the CCI and the CCP suggest that each national competition authority has its own distinct interpretive strategy which reflects the extent of compatibility and legitimacy generated for the competition legislation in the adoption stage. This chapter examines and compares the CCI and CCP’s interpretation of provisions for horizontal and vertical anti-competitive agreements to extrapolate some understanding of their overall interpretive strategies. The chapter demonstrates that despite the comparable antecedents of the relevant provisions of the Indian and Pakistani Acts, the CCP relied more heavily on foreign precedents in interpreting these provisions than the CCI. The chapter further demonstrates that the disparate interpretive strategies of the CCI and CCP may be explained by the disparity in the compatibility and legitimacy of the acts and to the CCP’s need to leverage foreign precedents to assert its international legitimacy, which in turn helped it to enhance its domestic legitimacy. The chapter finally argues that in addition to reflecting the compatibility and legitimacy generated at the adoption stage, the interpretative strategies adopted by the CCI and the CCP also shape the competition and legitimacy of the acts and chart their implementation trajectory.

After formally adopting their competition laws, India and Pakistan were faced with the task of implementing them. However, although both countries established their national competition authorities, the CCI and the CCP, almost immediately after adopting their respective legislations, the enforcement of these legislations has not been without complications. This chapter compares the structures, mandates, and compositions of these authorities and their decision-making strategies, and provides a comparative overview of implementation of competition laws in the two countries by reference indicators derived from the orders issued by the CCI and CCP in respect of anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance. The chapter also links the performance of the CCI and CCP and their interactions with their countries’ pre-existing legal systems to the mechanisms and institutions employed by the countries in the adoption stage and the compatibility and legitimacy generated through them.