According to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), distortions in the digital market need to be promptly corrected with the country emerging as one of the biggest and fastest digital economies.
While addressing a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairperson, CCI, said that with control over used data and online real estate, the digital platforms are in a unique position to shape and influence consumer choices on one hand and steer consumer traffic to their businesses on the other. He noted that the gatekeeper position of these platforms is giving rise to concerns over their competition and contestability.
Further, Gupta stated that to address the challenges of enforcement and policy in this regard, the regulatory framework needed to adapt and reflect digital market complexities, reframe classic categories and concerns around personal and non-personal data and add other dimensions of quality and privacy, identify issues early on and cause faster remedial interventions. The challenges are multi-dimensional, and the antitrust, analytical and conceptual framework needs necessary adaptations to reflect digital market complexities. Another challenge is that the data-related conduct not only requires reshaping the classic antitrust around personal and non-personal data as the relevant asset but adding other dimensions of competition such as quality and privacy.
He noted that even though the digital market is prone to tipping, earlier identification of faster remedial interventions is of paramount importance, adding that the challenge for policymakers and regulators is to keep abreast of the development in these markets and continue to evolve and refine the tools.
