Antitrust and competition

Yaman Verma

Yaman Verma is a Partner in the Firm's Competition Law Practice with over 11 years' experience. He has been practicing competition law since the Competition Act came into force in India and has been involved in a number of significant enforcement and merger control cases.  Yaman’s works with clients across a spectrum of industries, including Microsoft Corporation, Meta Platforms Inc., Coal India Limited, Walmart, Inc., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Vodafone India Limited, WhatsApp, Inc., Flipkart Ltd., Temasek, Zomato, and Xiaomi.  Yaman is currently involved in a number of high profile cartel as well as abuse of dominance enforcement cases, including several major investigations into digital markets. Previously, he has successfully defended Microsoft against an allegation of unfair and discriminatory pricing, WhatsApp against allegations of abuse of dominance, and Flipkart against allegations of preferential treatment and discrimination. He also successfully represented Matrimony.com in an abuse of dominance case against Google, where the Competition Commission of India fined Google INR 136 crores. He also routinely advises clients in relation to their agreements and allegations of cartelization and has successfully represented Coal India Limited in a cartel complaint against its explosives suppliers before the CCI and the appellate tribunal. He represented Globecast Asia Pte Ltd in their leniency application before the Commission, and was successful in obtaining a 100% reduction in penalty for Globecast and its officials. On the merger control side, Yaman helped secure unconditional approval for Vodafone India’s merger with Idea Cellular Limited (India’s largest M&A transaction), and, more recently, Zomato’s acquisition of a minority stake in online groceries platform Grofers, Facebook’s acquisition of a minority stake in Jio Platforms Limited, Flipkart’s acquisition of a minority stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited, and the merger between Linde AG and Praxair, Inc. He acted on securing the green channel approval for Aeroports de Paris’ acquisition of a significant minority stake in GMR Airports. He has previously advised on Walmart’s Acquisition of a majority stake in Flipkart (and successfully defended the approval in follow on litigation),  Siemens’ acquisition of Alstom’s mobility business, the acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business by Microsoft, and GRUH Finance’s merger into Bandhan Bank, as well as transactions in the automobiles space (including the capital alliance between Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, and the merger of Fiat with Peugeot), the pharmaceuticals space (including Pfizer’s proposed merger with Allergan, and GSK’s acquisition of Novartis’ vaccines and over the counter drugs business), and the agrochemicals space (including the merger between the Dow Chemical Company and E. I. du Pont de Nemours, the merger between Agrium Inc. and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, and the acquisition by FMC Corporation of the agrochemicals business divested by DuPont as part of the conditions of its merger with Dow). He also routinely acts for private equity investors in relation obtaining CCI approvals for their acquisitions.   Yaman was most recently recognised by the Indian Business Law Journal as a Future Legal Leader in 2021, and by Chambers & Partners, 2021 as an “Up and Coming” lawyer for Competition and Antitrust, described as “a very bright lawyer” with “very good project management skills”. He has been recognized as a “future leader” in “Who's Who Legal: Competition Future Leaders”, from 2017 to 2021, being “most highly regarded” in 2019, lauded for his “management of major merger control mandates in an ‘effective, thorough and calm way’”, and his “clarity of thought and in-depth knowledge of competition laws”.  He was included as a “Rising Star” in Competition and Antitrust in The Experts Guides list for 2018 to 2021 and in the Legal 500 list of “Next Generation Lawyers” for India for 2017 to 2021. He regularly contributes to competition law publications and has co-authored India chapters for GCR, “Getting the Deal Through”, as well as for PLC. He has also co-authored articles on Indian antitrust law for a Competition Policy International Publication titled “The Evolution of Antitrust in the Digital Era: Essays on Competition Policy” in 2020, and a  Kluwer Publication titled “Competition and Patent Law in the Pharmaceutical Sector: An International Perspective” in 2016, and assisted in the editing of the sixth edition of SM Dugar’s Guide to Competition Law, also published in 2016,. He also conducts an elective course on competition law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and has been an invited guest lecturer at various law universities across India.  

G.R. Bhatia

Avaantika Kakkar

Partner

Harman Singh Sandhu

Mr. Harman Singh Sandhu is a Partner in the Firm's Competition Law Practice, involved with competition law since its inception in India. Harman has considerable experience in advising Indian and foreign companies in relation to a whole range of competition issues (both on the advisory side and in proceedings before the Competition Commission of India (CCI)), the National Law Appellate Tribunal, the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India). His experience spans a variety of sectors including telecoms, railways, steel, aviation, banking, natural resources (oil, coal, iron ore, etc.), petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, paper, construction, cement, tyres, mineral processing equipment and fibres.  His prominent clients include Ballarpur Industries, Trident Industries, ACC Limited, Ambuja Cements, Nutrien Inc, Linde AG., DuPont, Coal India Limited, Bayer/Monsanto, Baring Private Equity Asia, Alstom and Oravel Stays (OYO).   Harman has been involved in defending large multinational companies in high profile cartel enforcement cases including leniency matters in India, in the cement and tyre industries amongst various others. Harman advised on the seminal CCI v. SAIL case, the first case under the Competition Act to be decided by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. He has successfully defended Apollo Tyres in the tyre cartelisation case, Tata Chemicals in the soda ash cartelization matter, Visaka Industries in relation to alleged cartelization in the asbestos sheets sector. He has acted for ACC (now a LafargeHolcim group company) in the cement cartel case, and for ACC and Ambuja Cement in relation to alleged bid rigging conduct.     Harman has been acknowledged as a leading lawyer in Global Competition Review's Who's Who Legal of Competition Lawyers since 2011. Harman was described as “fabulous, highly intelligent and someone who provides great inputs on all his matters – I have great respect for him” by Chambers Global Guide 2013. Chambers and Partners 2016 stated, “Harman Sandhu is a rising star in the competition practice, who is widely recognized by peers. One interviewee characterizes him as "a great guy - very intelligent and very hard-working." In 2018, Chambers and Partners recognized Harman as a notable practitioner, noted that he has a solid reputation and experience in cartelisation and abuse of dominance matters. Interviewees state that he "stands out as one of the most dynamic lawyers," who is "pragmatic, very effective" and "solution-oriented." For 2019, Chambers and Partners noted that market sources are “very impressed with his capabilities” and he “comes up with the best advice” for industry-specific and multi-jurisdictional issues, and “stands out for his assured handling of the competition aspects of large, cross-border transactions.” In 2021, Chambers and Partners recognized Harman as "an exceptionally smart lawyer and great strategist" and he has been ranked as a ‘Global Leader‘ and ‘Global Elite Thought Leader’ in the Who’s Who Legal Rankings for Competition Law in 2021.