Jet Etihad Case and Relevant Market

Relevant market has been defined in different statutes all over the world like the Act, UK laws,
European laws and anti trust laws of US as well as in Indian Law as well; however it is neither
possible nor justifiable to limit the scope of 'relevant market' to few theoretical definitions. Even
the adjudicating forums find it difficult to restrict the ambit of the said concept and each dispute
results in a new and unique interpretation. So the whole discussion comes down to the point as to
what is relevant market. The current topic will thoroughly discuss as to what is relevant market
and what impact was created with the competitiveness. Relevant market will be discussed in the
light of Jet Etihad Case and identification of relevant market in the lieu of anti-competitiveness
The term relevant market is defined under Section 2(r) of the Act as the market, which may be
determined by the Commission with reference to relevant product market and relevant
geographic market or with reference to both the markets. Section 4 of the Act prohibits any
enterprise or group from abusing dominant position, meaning thereby a position of strength,
enjoyed by an enterprise or group, in the relevant market, in India which enables it to

Operate independently of competitive forces prevailing in the relevant market; or

Affect its competitions or consumers or the relevant market in its favor.

The Jet Airways Etihad Airways investment proposal is by far one of the biggest as well as the
most complex Combination Proposal which the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has had
to handle till date. Hence it is important to discuss the ambiguities and vacuities which are
prevalent in the majority order of the Commission.
The Commission was correct in using the origin and destination (O and D) principle to define the
relevant market for the purpose of the transaction. According to this principle, every combination
of a point of origin and a point of destination is considered to be a separate market from the
consumers viewpoint. In other words, it is correct to identify all the routes between India and
Abu-Dhabi as the relevant market to be taken into consideration to determine any prospective
anti- competitiveness. It is also correct to conduct a separate analysis for each and every route,
both direct and indirect, from any airport in India to the Abu-Dhabi hub. In other words, the
essence or the trajectory of the Commissions reasoning is correct. It is after this take-off that the
Commission begins to fly into pockets of turbulence. The relevant market definition the
Commission made a distinction between different groups of passengers and observed that Indian
passengers on the 9 direct overlapping O&D pairs are generally more price sensitive and less
time sensitive. Moreover, passengers living in the catchment areas of two or more airports may
consider those airports as possible substitutes when choosing which airport they fly from and
which airport they fly to.

Conclusion
The advantages of perfect competition are three-fold: allocative efficiency, which ensures the
effective allocation of resources, productive efficiency, which ensures that costs of production
are kept at a minimum and dynamic efficiency, which promotes innovative practices. These
factors by and large have been accepted al over the world as the guiding principles for effective
implementation of competition Law. (CCI v/s SAIL & Anr., No. 7779 of 2010)
However effect of complexities that can arrive due to amalgamation is discussed in the light of
JET-Etihad case with view of anti-competitiveness. Commission need to be prescient especially
in sectors and industry where the cycle of innovation and change is often a year or a couple of
months - space must be provided for innovation and change in line with economic liberalization
and market orientation.