Vaibhav Choukse

Vaibhav Choukse is a Partner in the Firm's Competition Law Practice, with over 16 years of experience. His primary practice area is Competition Law.

He has been practising competition law since its inception in India, specialising in complex litigation and merger control, advising clients across diverse industries. His expertise spans complex competition matters before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and appellate courts.

In litigation and enforcement, he routinely advises multinational corporations and industry associations on cartel investigations, leniency, dawn raids, vertical agreements, abuse of dominance, and competition compliance. He has successfully defended global auto-component manufacturers, a leading tyre company, a leading multiplex operator and a leading paper company in cartel cases before the CCI. He currently advises leading players in the seed, pharmaceutical, cement, advertising and financial sectors in cartel and vertical restraint investigations.

In abuse of dominance matters, he represents Hyundai and Ford Motors in India's first auto-parts aftermarket abuse case and FabHotels in India's first MFN case against MakeMyTrip. He also represented Nuziveedu Seeds in an abuse of dominance case against Monsanto before the CCI and the Delhi High Court. He is also involved in constitutional and procedural challenges to CCI investigations before various High Courts, and recently secured a stay on the CCI's investigation against sellers on a leading e-commerce platform.

In merger control, he has obtained merger control approvals for complex transactions across Form I and Form II, including Temasek's investments in Manipal Hospitals and Haldiram, ONGC NTPC Green's acquisition of Ayana Renewable, Coforge–Cigniti, EQT's investment in Indira IVF and HDFC Credila, IBM's global MIS spin-off into Kyndryl, the TVS Group restructuring, and the Ford–Mahindra joint venture, among others.

He is a prolific author and speaker, contributing to leading competition law journals and business newspapers and frequently speaking at industry forums. He is recognised among India's leading competition lawyers by Chambers & Partners, Who's Who Legal, Global Competition Review, Lexology, Legal 500, Forbes Powelist and AsiaLaw. In 2024, he was named to ALB Asia's 40 Under 40, distinguishing him as one of Asia's top young legal talents and the only competition lawyer on the list.

He holds a master's degree in Competition Law from King's College London, where he studied under Prof. Richard Whish KC (Hon) in EU Competition Law.

He is a member of the Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh, the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Competition Law Bar Association (India).

His publications include the Chambers Merger Control Guide – India (2025), the Chambers Antitrust Litigation 2024 – Trends and Development Chapter, the India Chapter for The Cartels & Leniency Review 2024 and numerous articles on competition law in digital markets, AI, standard essential patents, no-poach agreements and antitrust interlocking.

He holds a B.A., LL.B. from NLC, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune (2008) and an LL.M in Competition Law from King's College, London (2009). He speaks English and Hindi.