As newer dimensions of digital markets unfold and new digital products emerge, policymakers and competition law will need to continue to provide the necessary safeguards to preserve a digital environment that is fair and competitive, Sangeeta Verma, acting chairperson, Competition Commission of India (CCI), said on Friday.
Highlighting the interface of digital technologies increasing with other sectors of the economy, she further stressed that it is necessary for competition agencies to ensure that market outcomes in the digital sector are driven by market forces, and not by the self-perpetuating anti-competitive strategies of a small cohort of players.
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Her comments come at a time when the government and the CCI are working to regulate competition-related issues in the digital economy, particularly mergers and acquisitions through proposed changes in the Competition Act, and the Standing Committee on Finance has also given recommendations on regulation of Big Tech. The CCI has also penalised tech giant Google for abuse of its dominant position, which is under appeal at the NCLAT.
“As ecosystem operators, the large big technology platforms are uniquely positioned to affect competition in multiple markets,” she said, adding that it is also important to recognise that price is not the only relevant metric. “Instead, aspects of access and control over data, search visibility and demand side features such as consumers’ behavioural biases, influence competition in digital settings,” she said at the national conference on the Economics of Competition Law.
Interventions in digital cases are premised on roll carrier form, guided by the economics of multi-sided platforms. Once practices that use competition are identified, it is important to be addressed that we address them through precise and definitely crafted remedies. Our recent orders have been an endeavour in this direction. As newer dimensions digital markets unfold, and new digital products emerge, policymakers and competition law will need to continue to provide the necessary safeguards to preserve a digital environment that’s fair and contested.
Verma further said that once practices that mute competition are identified, it is important that they are addressed through precise and definitely crafted remedies. “Our recent orders have been an endeavour in this direction,” she further said.
There is also a growing recognition across jurisdictions that enforcement of competition law should be supplemented with suitable legislative measures, she said.
Recent developments in digital markets also point to the imperative of strengthening the institutional capability within CCI, Verma said, adding that the commission has already initiated the process of setting up a digital markets and data unit that will add to the specialised interdisciplinary centre of expertise for digital markets within commission.
