The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (the Committee) recently released its 53rd report on ‘Anti-Competitive Practices by Big Tech Companies’ (the Report). Thereafter, the MCA constituted a new committee to, among other things, analyse the need for a new ex-ante framework for digital markets and draft a new DCA. These developments come at a time when both the national and international jurisprudence on competition is undergoing significant transformation. Nationally, the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (the 2022 Bill) has been introduced which seeks to strengthen the extant framework to deal with the peculiarities of digital markets.
Internationally, jurisdictions like the EU are adopting an ex-ante framework like the DMA with the intention of ensuring fairness and contestability in digital markets. In this background, the Committee’s report becomes significantly relevant. For the Report, the Committee took oral evidence from various stakeholders, including the Competition Commission of India (Commission), industry organisations and technology companies. On the basis of these submissions and past CCI cases, the Committee delineated ten ACPs and made subsequent recommendations aimed at effectively addressing these ACPs.
