India's competition authority is gradually moving towards ex-ante regulation of digital markets.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has embarked on a comprehensive review of all its regulations, Ravneet Kaur, chairperson, said on Thursday,March 28.
“In the immediate future, we are going to review all our regulations. We are looking at comprehensive amendments of the general regulations and some other regulations as well. We are going to go through a process of public consultation, and will also take into consideration the concerns of various stakeholders,”
Kaur said, at a conference.
This review will be over and above the amendments that were made in the competition law last year. In the last round of amendments, CCI defined a new deal value threshold, reduced the timeline for the implementation of M&As to 150 days and introduced the settlement and commitment mechanism.
Kaur said that even though CCI has moved to ex-ante regime with the digital competition law, it’s aware of the work that lies ahead of the commission.
“It is different from what we have done so far in the last 15 years because our focus has been on ex-post regulations. Now this is a move towards ex-ante regulation. We have done some ex-ante work in the combination side. We are aware of the nature of work which will be coming up in case it (the law) gets passed in the current form,”
she said.
In March, the CCI released draft Digital Competition Bill that was specifically crafted to address the rising anti-competitive conduct of Big Tech firms. The proposed legislation prohibits tech firms to indulge in activities such as restricting third-party apps, self-preferecing, misusing business and end-user data, and bundling products and services.
Kaur said that the CCI is strengthening the workforce to handle the digital competition cases. “It is still going to take a lot of time, especially with the ex-ante regulations which require continuous monitoring. There is going to be a continuous look out from the CCI side on the markets as to how they are performing, and how the players are interacting and taking the market forward,” she said.
The CCI chairperson also said that the competition watchdog is actively looking at safeguarding the consumer interest.
“It is becoming very important in digital markets, especially because how the technologies are being leveraged in various markets and how AI is being adopted by companies. We would like to (ensure) that the markets are competitive and inclusive. We want to be at the forefront in terms of the enforcement and advocacy of the competition law,”
she said.
In the past 10 months, CCI has passed more than 40 orders in various antitrust matters. It has also examined various important M&As in the recent past.
Source: Financial Express
