CorpConnect Corporate Law News December 2025

India’s New Labour Codes: A Comprehensive Overview for Employers

India has entered a new phase in employment regulation with the implementation of the four consolidated Labour Codes. Together, these Codes replace 29 central labour laws with a unified legislative framework on wages, industrial relations, social security and working conditions. This marks a decisive shift away from a fragmented, decades old regime that often left both employers and workers navigating redundancies, overlaps and outdated provisions.

Code on Wages, 2019

The Code on Wages streamlines four earlier laws into a single uniform statute governing minimum wages, payment of wages, bonus and equal remuneration. It ensures that every worker, irrespective of industry or skill category, receives legally mandated wage protection.

India’s Global Turnover Penalty Framework and Apple’s Challenge

On 3 December, the Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear Apple Inc.’s petition challenging the Competition (Amendment) Act 2023 and the Monetary Penalty Guidelines 2024. The petition places India’s penalty framework under focused judicial scrutiny at a time when Apple already faces multiple investigations before the Competition Commission of India, including the App Store inquiry discussed in our earlier publication “Apple Under Scrutiny: A Detailed Look into the CCI Investigation”.

The amendments at issue enable the CCI to compute penalties on the basis of global turnover, including revenue earned outside India and revenue from business lines entirely unconnected to the alleged contravention.

This represents a clear departure from the penalty jurisprudence that has governed Indian competition law for over a decade. The core of Apple’s case is that penalties under Section 27 must retain a rational nexus with the specific conduct under inquiry. In Apple’s view, the 2023 amendment directly overturns the Supreme Court’s holding in Excel Crop Care v CCI, which confined penalties to the turnover of the product or service forming the subject matter of the infringement.

AI and Deepfakes: Navigating the digital revolution and its dark side

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown quite fast and has led to great inventions and significantly influencing the economy. AI technologies are expected to boost India’s GDP $6.6T by 2035 but it has also seen technologies like Deepfake emerge.

Regardless of the several benefits that AI offers, today, is has emerged the most dangerous weapon in the cybercriminal arsenal. A 2025 Phishing Threat Trends Report mentioned that AI tools were involved in approximately 82.6% of all phishing emails, positioning AI in nearly 8 out of every 10 phishing campaigns. Among its most controversial creations stands the deepfake. The volume of deepfake materials escalated from approximately 500,000 during 2023 to 8 million in 2025. Exhibiting an accelerating expansion rate surpassing most other digital security challenges.

(https://ssrana.in/articles/deepfake-technology-navigating-realm-synthetic-media/)

The legal, ethical and social ramifications of AI generated content has been hard to assess with the ever-deepening crises of Deepfakes. With the dramatic increase in malicious use for fraud, impersonation and non-consensual imagery, detection of deepfakes with human accuracy is relatively low.

Comparative Advertisement Boundaries Reinforced in Patanjali Chyawanprash Case

Comparative advertising is an accepted, even welcome, commercial practice. It encourages competition, informs consumers, and helps brands differentiate themselves. However, the legal boundary is well-settled: an advertiser may laud its own product, but cannot disparage competing products, particularly through misleading or accusatory statements.

The Hon’ble Delhi High Court’s 2025 ruling against Patanjali on its “Dhoka Chyawanprash” advertisement in Dabur India Limited Vs. Patanjali Ayurved Limited & Anr. revisits and reinforces this boundary. By categorically rejecting Patanjali’s defence of puffery and commercial free speech, the Court clarified that speech becomes unlawful when it crosses into deception, denigration, or harm to competitors.

This case is especially significant for the FMCG and Ayurvedic sectors, where celebrity-endorsed claims, health-related assertions, and consumer trust play central roles.

Ensuring Child Safety under the DPDPA

Indian law defines a ‘child’ as an individual under the age of 18. According to UNICEF, children make up approximately 39% of India’s total population. As per a 2024 report by the Assam Police, one in four internet users in India is a child. This means that a substantial 25% of the population using Internet in India is below the age of 18. These statistics indicate a growing concern of safeguarding children’s digital presence and identity in India. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as ‘DPDPA’) and the Rules made thereunder (hereinafter referred to as ‘DPDP Rules’) addresses these concerns by providing additional protection to Children’s Personal Data. This article will discuss the provisions related to Children’s data under the DPDPA in conjunction with other relevant laws and if the same is sufficient to protect children in the cyberspace.

(To read more on online harms affecting children, refer to – https://ssrana.in/articles/openais-report-triggers-ethical-ai-concerns-1-2-million-users-seek-self-harm-related-advice-from-chatgpt/ )

Effect of Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 on AI Regulation

The Final Digital Personal Data Protection Rules (hereinafter referred to as ‘DPDP Rules/ The Rules’) notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as ‘MeitY’) operationalized the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2025 (hereinafter referred to as ‘DPDPA/ The Act’) fills a major legal vacuum regulating the governance of digital personal data and data privacy in India. However, a major question still looms large as the application of The Act on Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as ‘AI’) systems remains a legal-technical grey area.