New Delhi, May 15 -- The Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday in a competition-law case is eminently notable. More than a decade after the Competition Commission of India found Schott Glass India guilty of abusing its market dominance, the apex court has put a final stamp on a reversal of that finding, noting firms mustn't be penalized for their size, unless they're shown to have disrupted rivalry in a market.

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Doing so could cause economic setbacks, to guard against which the court advocated an "effects-based" standard of adjudication: "Heavy-handed enforcement, divorced from market effects, would discourage the long-term capital and expert...