The year 2022 was a pivotal year for competition law in India as it established that correcting anti-competitive practices in the digital market is a regulatory priority. In line with this objective, ...
Published On: 07/03/2023
Practice Area: Competition Law
Authors:
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Avimukt Dar
Unnati Agrawal
Parth Sehan
On December 22, 2022, the Standing Committee on Finance (“Committee”) presented its report titled ‘Anti-competitive practices by big tech companies’, before the Lok Sabha. The Committee has identified 10 anti-competitive practices in the digital sector and proposed enactment of a sui generis law, namely the Digital Competition Act. Thereafter, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, on February 06, 2023, constituted a 16-member inter-ministerial Committee on Digital Competition Law (“CDCL”) to assess the need for a separate law on competition in digital markets. Given that India is a developing economy, any over-zealousness to introduce an ex-ante law, similar to other developed economies, may have unintended consequences. Hence, it may be prudent to wait and take the advantage of learning externalities and experience of the jurisdictions which have introduced an ex-ante law. INDUSLAW’s Avimukt Dar, Unnati Agrawal, Parth Sehan, Yash Lahoty, Swapnil Singh, and Hrishav Kumar analyse the key recommendations of the Committee along with the mandate of the CDCL and provide their insights.
