A Critical Analysis of Hub-and-Spoke Cartels in India: Emerging Concerns and Enforcement Challenges under the Competition Act, 2002

India's burgeoning digital platform economy, valued at USD 370 billion in 2023 and projected to surpass USD 1 trillion by 2030, has fostered conditions ripe for hub-and-spoke cartels, where platforms act as central hubs facilitating coordinated anti-competitive behaviour among competing sellers or service providers through algorithms, parity clauses, and uniform terms. The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023, introduced explicit recognition of such arrangements within the cartel definition under Section 2(c) and extended per se illegality to them via Section 3(3), marking a significant alignment with established enforcement in the US, UK, and Singapore. Despite this legislative progress, enforcement lags, with ongoing CCI investigations into airline algorithms, OTA parity, and food-delivery platforms yet to yield final orders as of late 2025. Persistent challenges like evidentiary proof of the horizontal rim, hub intent, limited digital forensics, and absence of dedicated guidelines, underscore the gap between statutory promise and practical deterrence, necessitating urgent reforms to safeguard competition in India's digitising markets.