Clinical Legal Education in Competition Law

When I start teaching competition law, I usually begin with something very simple. This subject is not just about markets or numbers. It is really about power. Who has it? How do they use it?. And what happens when they are allowed to use it without limits. Most of the time, the people affected by that power are not the ones who get to speak. That is where the law is supposed to step in.

The law gives us tools to deal with this power. But the tools are not always sharp. And they are definitely not always used. In class, we study the usual things. Definitions of markets. Abuse of dominance. Bid rigging. Merger thresholds. The Competition Act looks clean and logical on the page. But when you try to apply it to actual market behaviour, things get messy.

That is where clinical legal education can really help. Not in the usual sense of working with clients or filing petitions. Competition cases do not show up at the legal aid clinic the way tenancy or domestic violence cases do. But there are other ways to teach students what this law looks like in the real world.

At VMLS, we have been exploring how market power works in everyday settings. In one of our sessions, students looked at how some large online platforms promote their own in-house brands alongside third-party sellers. At first, it just looked like a smart business strategy. But as they paid closer attention, they noticed something else. Certain products kept showing up at the top of search results. Some brands were getting more visibility than others, even when their prices or ratings were similar. Eventually, students traced the pattern back to the platform itself. The more they examined it, the more they began to see how these quiet decisions about placement and visibility can shape entire markets. What started as a simple case study turned into a deeper conversation about gatekeeping, conflict of interest, and how much power a single platform can quietly hold.

This is what clinical education should do. It should train students to notice things that are not obvious. To pay attention to patterns of behaviour that may not yet have names. To understand how legal rules apply when no one says the word “dominance” out loud.

I have seen this shift happen in students. They often come in thinking competition law is all about long, technical orders and technical definitions. But once they start engaging with real examples, their perspective begins to change. They notice how some apps are made more visible in app stores while others stay hidden. They realise that certain payment systems are blocked, not because they are unsafe, but because they compete with the platform’s own services. They begin to understand how design choices like search rankings or default options quietly shape the entire market. After a while, they stop asking what the law says and start asking what it overlooks. That moment, when they begin to see what the law leaves out, is where real learning begins.

This is not easy work. And it does not always look like a clinic in the traditional sense. Legal aid clinics in Chennai, or anywhere else in the country, are not full of competition cases. But if we are serious about preparing students for the kind of legal practice this field demands, then we have to give them a way to see the invisible parts of the market. The ones the textbooks do not always talk about.

For students considering the 3 year LLB, this kind of learning matters. Many of them are not coming straight from school. They have worked. They have seen markets. They are interested in systems. They do not just want to recite sections. They want to understand how law shapes business and who benefits when it does. Competition law gives them that doorway. Clinical education gives them the experience to walk through it with their eyes open.

Conclusion

We are still learning how to teach this well. But if we can train students to notice things that are hard to name, to stay curious, and to question what they are told is normal, then that is a good start. Because this law is not just about regulating markets. It is about seeing them clearly. And helping others do the same.