The ministry of corporate affairs is unlikely to extend the deadline to provide feedback to the Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024. “We have received significant inputs from stakeholders, and the responses will be evaluated to prepare the final draft,” said an official on condition of anonymity. The last date to submit the response is May 15 (Wednesday), and the ministry has already extended the deadline once by a month.
The draft of the proposed legislation that aims to target Big Tech firms for their anti-competitive conduct through ex-ante regulations was released on March 12. The ex-ante regulations will supplement the existing Competition Act to ensure that the behaviour of large digital enterprises is proactively monitored, and that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) intervenes before instances of anti-competitive conduct transpire.
Last month, members of the civil society and industry associations, including Broadband India Forum, CUTS International, CCAOI, Internet Freedom Foundation, wrote a letter to the government asking for the extension of the deadline by five months to October 15.
The draft bill has received a lot of flak over the past two months with some stakeholders expecting the regulations to stifle innovation and hit the start-ups and MSME sector. “Giving another extension for a shorter timeframe would not have been a bad idea because of the huge interest in the draft bill from different stakeholders,” said K.K. Sharma, founder, KK Sharma Law Offices.
With the proposed law, the government is closely following the footsteps of European Union which was one of the first to introduce ex-ante legislation to regulate Big Tech. “Australia and the UK governments are still deciding whether to introduce ex-ante legislation despite initiating this process in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The US is still considering measures to address the modern challenges in the technology sector,” said a note from law firm AZB & Partners.
The Big Tech firms like Apple India, Google, Meta, Flipkart, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Oyo, and others have strongly opposed the ex-ante regulations. Apple India, for instance, has favoured a light-touch regime which promotes innovation in its response to the government.