The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday issued merger control regulations. India has now joined a club of 100 countries that have a merger control regime in place.

The merger control guidelines, issued by CCI under the Competition Act, 2002, will apply only to transactions where binding documents are executed on or after 1 June, 2011 or, in the case of mergers and amalgamations, where the boards of directors of respective businesses approve the proposal on or after 1 June, 2011.

The final regulations are a marked improvement on the earlier draft regulations, which were published by the CCI in two branches - first in 2008 and subsequently in March, 2011.

The regulations issued now provide clarity on several issues of concern, including, whether transactions which have been executed but are not closed by 1 June would require CCI clearance, what is the trigger event for the filing requirement or what types of transaction are unlikely to cause competition concerns.