Centre invites Big Tech, start-ups to discuss digital competition law

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has invited representatives of Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, Twitter, and Netflix for discussions about the proposed digital competition law, according to sources. Zomato, OYO, Swiggy, Paytm, MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, and a few others will also join these discussions.

The ministry has decided to hold initial discussions with three sets of stakeholders in two tranches. It has invited associations, such as Alliance of Digital India Federation and All India Gaming Federation, besides domestic start-ups and news publishers, on March 4 to present their views.

Big Tech companies have been asked to come separately on March 11 to make suggestions on the digital competition law.

On behalf of the news publishing industry, two associations would be taking part in these discussions -- Digital News Publishers Association and the Newspaper Association of India.

A senior official said that the government's task is to balance regulation and innovation while framing the digital competition law.

The parliamentary committee on finance in its report tabled in December 2022 suggested the need for a digital competition law. The House panel underlined the need for ex-ante regulations (cautionary regulations) for Big Tech.

The first meeting of the inter-ministerial panel formed for framing the law was held on February 22.

The 16-member committee is chaired by Manoj Govil, secretary, MCA. It includes chairperson, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Saurabh Srivastava, chairman, Indian Angel Network and co-founder of industry body NASSCOM.

Among the law firms on the panel are Haigreve Khaitan of Khaitan & Co, Pallavi Shardul Shroff of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, Anand Pathak, P&A Law Offices, and Rahul Rai, Axiom5 Law Chamber.

The discussion around the digital competition law comes amid a global scrutiny of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and others for allegedly abusing their market position using user data. Earlier this year, the CCI slapped Google, in two separate cases, with penalties of Rs 936.44 crore and Rs 1,337.76 crore.

 The Supreme Court recently greenlighted the CCI’s probe into WhatsApp’s privacy policy update, related to allegations that it shares user data with its parent company Facebook’s advertising business.