DIGITAL COMPETITION BILL, 2024 | IS EX-ANTE REGULATION THE NEXT BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD OR A FRANKENSTEIN IN THE MAKING?

Published On: 04/04/2024

Practice Area: Competition Law

Authors:

On March 12, 2024, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs released a report prepared by the Committee on Digital Competition Law which recommended an introduction of an ex-ante legislation specifically applicable to large digital enterprises, to supplement the Competition Act, 2002 (as amended). In this regard, the report comprised a draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024, inviting public comments until April 15, 2024. While the efforts of the Committee on Digital Competition Law are laudable, India is a developing economy, which is just starting to enjoy the fruits of internet penetration in the form of a growing digital economy and a robust start-up ecosystem. Thus, any over-zealousness by India to introduce a similar ex-ante law (to maintain pace with its foreign counterparts) may be counterproductive and may even have unintended consequences. INDUSLAW's Avimukt Dar, Unnati Agrawal, Nikita Agarwal, Swapnil S and Hrishav Kumar analyse the draft Digital Competition Bill.