In a move that tightens the screws on unfair pricing tactics in India’s rapidly growing digital retail space, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has officially released its new regulations for calculating production costs. This fresh set of rules will give the regulator sharper tools to evaluate cases involving predatory pricing and heavy discounting — practices that have come under increasing scrutiny, especially in the quick commerce and e-commerce sectors.
The final regulations, titled Competition Commission of India (Determination of Cost of Production) Regulations, 2025, come after the draft was put out in February for public feedback. Industry players, legal experts, and stakeholders weighed in during the consultation process, following which the updated guidelines were formally notified.
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This regulatory update is timely. Several complaints have surfaced recently alleging anti-competitive practices by platforms offering lightning-fast deliveries and steep price cuts. The CCI, already probing some of these claims, now has a firmer legal foundation to assess whether companies are slashing prices below cost in a bid to edge out rivals — a practice considered abusive if done by dominant players under India’s competition law.
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By laying down a structured method for determining production costs, the watchdog can now better distinguish between aggressive pricing and anti-competitive behavior. This could have far-reaching implications for how deep discounts and pricing wars play out in India’s fast-evolving digital marketplace.
