Yaman Verma
(The following information was supplied by the firm)
Partner
Yaman Verma is a Partner in the Firm’s Competition Law Practice with over 10 years’ experience in competition law matters.
Yaman has been practicing competition law since the Competition Act came into force in India and has been involved in a number of significant enforcement and merger control cases. Major clients include Microsoft Corporation, Facebook Inc., Coal India Limited, Walmart, Inc., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Vodafone India Limited, WhatsApp, Inc., Flipkart Ltd., Temasek, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Yaman is currently involved in a number of high profile cartel as well as abuse of dominance enforcement cases. He has successfully defended Microsoft against an allegation of unfair and discriminatory pricing, WhatsApp against allegations of abuse of dominance, and Flipkart against allegations of preferential treatment and discrimination. He successfully represented Matrimony.com in an abuse of dominance case against Google, where the Competition Commission of India fined Google INR 136 crores.
Yaman also routinely advises clients in relation to their agreements and allegations of cartelisation and has successfully represented Coal India Limited in a cartel complaint against its explosives suppliers before the CCI and the appellate tribunal. He represented Globecast Asia Pte Ltd in their leniency application before the Commission, and was successful in obtaining a 100% reduction in penalty for Globecast and its officials. He was involved in obtaining a reversal of the Commission’s order finding Coal India Limited in violation of the Competition Act, after which the Commission re-heard the matter and reduced the penalty imposed upon Coal India Limited. He was also involved in obtaining an unconditional stay from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on the Commission’s revised order. He also advises trade associations in relation to compliance with competition laws.
On the merger control side, Yaman helped secure unconditional approval for Vodafone India’s merger with Idea Cellular Limited (India’s largest M&A transaction), and, more recently, Facebook’s acquisition of a minority stake in Jio Platforms Limited, the capital alliance between Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, the merger of Fiat with Peugeot, Walmart’s Acquisition of a majority stake in Flipkart (and sucessfully defenced the approval in follow on litigation), Siemens’ acquisition of Alstom’s mobility business, and GRUH Finance’s merger into Bandhan Bank. He acted on securing the green channel approval for Aeroports de Paris’ acquisition of a significant minority stake in GMR Airports. He has previously advised on the acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business by Microsoft, GSK’s acquisition of Novartis’ vaccines and over the counter drugs business, and was also involved in securing an approval for the merger between the Dow Chemical Company and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and, the merger between Agrium Inc. and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, the acquisition by FMC Corporation of the agrochemicals business divested by DuPont as part of the conditions of its merger with Dow, and the merger between Linde AG and Praxair, Inc. He routinely acts for private equity investors in relation to obtaining CCI approvals for their acquisitions.
Yaman regularly contributes to competition law publications and has co-authored India chapters for GCR, “Getting the Deal Through”, as well as for PLC. He has also co-authored an article on Indian antitrust law for a Kluwer Publication titled “Competition and Patent Law in the Pharmaceutical Sector: An International Perspective” and assisted in the editing of the sixth edition of SM Dugar’s Guide to Competition Law, both published in 2016. He also conducts an elective course on competition law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.
Before joining Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, Yaman worked for a short time with the Competition Commission of India in February-March, 2010, and published a paper on leniency programs across the world.
Professional Memberships
- Bar Council of India
- Bar Council of Delhi
Education
- B.A. LL.B, (Hons.), National Law School of India University