Prof. Jeong Yeol Kim, as an affiliate of the American Bar Association, recently played a leading role on the ABA’s Cartel and Criminal Practice Committee. Prof. Kim, along with other contributors, was tasked with drafting comments on India’s Lesser Penalty Plus Regulation for the Competition Comission of India [CCI]. 

In October 2023, the CCI began the introduction of the “Lesser Penalty Plus” regulation. The Lesser Penalty Plus, also known as “Leniency Plus “or “Amnesty Penalty”, has been introduced to incentivize existing lesser penalty applicants who provide full, true, and vital disclosures about a second cartel unknown to the CCI. Applicants will be eligible to receive an additional reduction in penalty subject to the fulfillment of prescribed terms and conditions. 

The "Lesser Penalty Plus" regulation is set to supersede the provisions of the Competition Acts of 2002 & 2009, which were established to prevent practices that could negatively impact competition, and foster, and maintain competitive markets. It will focus on safeguarding consumer interests and upholding the freedom of trade conducted by various market participants in India. 

To achieve this mandate, the statutory body made a call for stakeholders globally to make contributions to and comments on its new regulation.  The responders to this call include the American Bar Association [ABA]; the ABA is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students committed to the academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model ethical codes related to the legal profession. ABA made its submission on the lesser penalty plus regulation in two (2) committees within the Antitrust Law section at ABA, the International Law Committee, and the Cartel and Criminal Practice Committee.

KDI School’s Prof. Jeong Yeol Kim is also an affiliate of the ABA and served on the Cartel and Criminal Practical Committee. Prof. Kim's recent and timely publication (Leniency Policies and Cartel Success: An Experiment, 2023), highly relevant to the topic at hand, prompted the committee to recognize him as an ideal candidate for the position. Prof. Kim was able to initiate the first draft of the comments  and collaborated with other lawyers in the Antitrust Law section to align with the appropriate legal framework and terminology. Following several iterations of the draft, the comments were ultimately perfected and submitted to the CCI on November 3, 2023. 

Upon further review by the CCI, comments submitted may better inform India’s new regulatory approach on the content of application materials, grant procedures, and withdrawals of applications of lesser penalty and lesser penalty plus.