After formally adopting their competition laws, India and Pakistan were faced with the task of implementing them. However, although both countries established their national competition authorities, the CCI and the CCP, almost immediately after adopting their respective legislations, the enforcement of these legislations has not been without complications. This chapter compares the structures, mandates, and compositions of these authorities and their decision-making strategies, and provides a comparative overview of implementation of competition laws in the two countries by reference indicators derived from the orders issued by the CCI and CCP in respect of anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance. The chapter also links the performance of the CCI and CCP and their interactions with their countries’ pre-existing legal systems to the mechanisms and institutions employed by the countries in the adoption stage and the compatibility and legitimacy generated through them.

Chapter 6 discusses the functioning of a regional system of competition law during a time of populism. This chapter is focused on the EU competition law system. Four topics are addressed. The first is the EU legislative initiative, which is aimed to empower national competition authorities, i.e. the ECN+ Directive.It is argued that this directive is not likely to resolve the problems faced by national competition law regimes subject to populists’ government’s pressure. Second, the chapter analyses what is the reaction of the EU competition law system to developments at the national level brought about by populists’ governments. Both the reactions of the EU institutions (the European Commission and the Court of Justice) and national institutions are analyzed. The insufficiency of these reactions is examined and explained. Third, the chapter outlines and examines the deficit of trust in the decentralized system of enforcement of EU competition law and shows how the rise of populism can have consequences for the EU competition law system, including the functioning of the European Competition Network. Fourth, the functioning of the central level of EU competition law system is examined.