Q83. An enterprise that is required to comply with the COMBINATION (merger) approval regime completes a combination WITHOUT giving notice and obtaining the prior approval of the Commission. Under Section 43A of the Competition Act, 2002, the consequence is a penalty of:

Section 43A of the Competition Act, 2002 provides that where a combination is implemented in contravention of the requirement of prior NOTICE to, and APPROVAL by, the Commission (Sections 6(2) and 6(2A)), the Commission may impose a penalty not exceeding 0.5% of the COMBINATION's TURNOVER or ASSETS, whichever is higher. This penalises mergers that evade the statutory pre-notification gate. The Commission may also order the combination to be dealt with under Section 31, including its reversal/modification. The 0.5%-of-tangible-assets-or-turnover penalty is the defining Combination Act figure.