Getting ready to act on anti-competitive conduct in AI space: CCI chief

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is getting ready to take action on any anti-competitive conduct emerging in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, the antitrust regulator’s Chairperson Ravneet Kaur said in a special address at the 11th National Conference on Economics of Competition Law on Monday.

 

Kaur said that the CCI had identified potential anti-competitive conduct, which could be in the form of concentration in the AI value chain. It could be algorithmic collusion, target price discrimination, and self-preferencing.

 

The CCI chair said: “As an initial stage, we have issued a guidance note, which provides self-audit by the stakeholders, so they can ensure that at the stage of development, deployment, monitoring of those AI applications, there aren't any hidden anticompetitive outcomes, which may be happening sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly.”

   

The CCI had conducted a market study on AI last year, calling for responsible autonomy while urging enterprises to include self-audit of AI systems to address potential competition concerns. The study, released in October 2025, said that India’s approach aims to strike “a delicate yet critical balance, by curbing market distortions and ensuring a level-playing field for all technology players, while fostering innovation, digital entrepreneurship, and widespread technology diffusion”.

 

The antitrust regulator is also doing a study on the renewable energy (RE) sector as part of the BRICS nations’ framework to identify competition-related issues in the sector, Kaur said.

 

She said the watchdog is also looking at antitrust issues in sports, civil aviation, paints and varnishes, and liquor sectors.

 

Kaur said that around 90 per cent of the antitrust matters received by the regulator have been disposed of. “We get antitrust matters from all across. We have a total of 1,360 antitrust information that has been received by the Commission, and out of that, 1,211 cases have already been decided and disposed of,” she added.

 

CCI has to do a delicate balancing act

 

The CCI has to perform a delicate balancing act by fostering innovation while preventing new forms of dominance, NITI Aayog Member Rajiv Gauba said on Monday. 

 

Delivering the keynote address at the CCI’s 11th National Conference on Economics of Competition Law, Gauba said while it was important to attract global tech investment and support the growth of startups and digital economy, “on the other side, there is the duty to protect Indian entrepreneurs and consumers from unfair, digital monopolies. We must avoid the extremes. Overregulation can curtail innovation”.

 

Gauba said a robust competition regime is necessary for attracting foreign investments.