Avaantika Kakkar

Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Avaantika is the head of the competition and antitrust practice, her professional career spans over 18 years and she was among the first Indian lawyers to start practising competition law in 2009, when it first became effective.

Avaantika advises on complex merger filings cases and was the lead lawyer in the first Phase II merger control case in India (Sun Pharma/Ranbaxy) and in the first few cases involving remedies. She represents her clients on the enforcement side and provides strategic support on commercial arrangements and compliance issues. She was involved with filing the first few leniency applications before the Competition Commission of India. Avaantika is one of the few lawyers in India with on-theground experience with dawn raids. Her investigations practice spans the white goods, cement, alcohol, personal care, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors.

Avaantika was a member of the working group set up by the Competition Law Review Committee established by the Government of India to review the Indian competition law regime. She has been ranked as an ‘Elite Practitioner’ by AsiaLaw (2021–2019),‘Leading Individual’ by The Legal 500 (2021–2018), ‘Band-1’ Practitioner’ by Chambers & Partners Asia-Pacific and included in the IBLJ A-List of top 100 Indian lawyers (2020–2019) and GCR’s Women in Antitrust 2021. She was awarded the Economic Times 40 Under Forty Award 2018. She has also authored a book titled A Perspective on Product Liability Law and Consumer Safety (2006) and is a published novelist.