The government has no plans to impose any hard set of regulations on Big Tech players like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. Senior officials told FE that only competition-related issues, whenever they emerge, will be looked at by the government because it does not want to stifle innovation by getting into micro issues like algorithms, which are key to the development of ecosystem by technology players.
The government approach would be to look into anti-competitive practices on a case-by-case basis rather than drafting an omnibus legislation aimed at regulation.
The issue relating to some kind of regulatory framework for Big Tech firms has once again emerged with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by BJP MP Jayant Sinha, looking into it. Last week, representatives of domestic tech startups like Flipkart, Paytm, Oyo Hotels and Homes, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy and MakeMyTrip met Sinha and highlighted the anti-competitive practices by the Big Tech firms. Representatives of Big Tech firms are also scheduled to meet Sinha shortly to put across their viewpoints on the subject.
According to officials, the key issue highlighted by the domestic players relates to algorithms which they feel are designed in such a way by the Big Tech firms that they do not get a level-playing field.
For instance, since players like Google control the search engine and the front-end, their own apps always get a default preference when options are thrown up before the users. Another issue relates to Google or Apple charging commission of up to 30% for in-app purchases.
Officials told FE that Google has deferred the implementation of the commission policy to October this year, but even if this was not the case, there’s not much the government can do here because it is not chargeable to every user. “More than 97% apps are free and even the few which attract commissions are beyond a certain threshold level in terms of value. Prima facie we do not find any uncompetitive practice here, but yes, tomorrow if any uncompetitive practices emerge, surely the government will look into it. But getting into the algorithms of the Big Tech players to regulate their search engines is something we will not get into,” Officials said.
For instance, if WhatsApp comes out with a policy, which aims at sharing users’ business-related data with its sister firm like Facebook, it would fall into the realm of competition laws or data protection laws and would be looked into. But there would be no regulation which directs WhatsApp to design its algorithm in such a manner that it provides users payment options other than WhatsApp Pay.
WhatsApp’s policy of sharing users’ business-related data with Facebook has already been objected by the ministry of electronics and IT and is being looked into by the Competition Commission of India and the matter is before the Delhi High Court also.
Analysts tracking the sector said that while Big Tech firms have been at the receiving end for several of their practices globally, any overkill on regulation like getting into algorithms would be detrimental as it would stifle innovation. They also said that India can hardly afford such an approach.
“An Apple phone would obviously pre-load its own apps and similarly an Android phone will come with pre-loaded Google apps. But they do provide users the option of downloading other apps, so where’s the problem?” asked an analyst. “It would be preposterous for every country to direct Apple or Google to pre-load the apps of their domestic players also in the phones,” the analyst added.