Digital Competition Law: MCA Calls Big Tech Firms, Startups For Discussions

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has reportedly invited representatives of big tech firms including Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Twitter, and Netflix for discussions on the proposed digital competition law. 

Zomato, OYO, Swiggy, Paytm, MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, and a few others will also be part of the discussions, as per a Business Standard report.

On February 6, the MCA constituted a 10-member panel to review the existing competition norms in the space and the need for a new legislation. However, several bodies including Indian startups and digital news publishers had raised concerns over the lack of their representation.

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) recently told a publication that the ministry should expand the committee with more representation from the domestic startup ecosystem.

The first meeting of this inter-ministerial committee, which has representatives from the Centre’s Departments of Commerce, Economic Affairs, and Consumer Affairs, NITI Aayog, DPIIT, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), among others, took place on February 22.

As per the latest report, the MCA will start initial discussions about the new proposed digital competition law with three sets of stakeholders in two tranches. The ministry has also invited the ADIF, along with the All India Gaming Federation, Indian startups, and news publishers, to present their views on March 4.

On the other hand, representatives of the big tech companies will join the discussion separately on March 11.

The Digital News Publishers Association and the Newspaper Association of India would take part in the discussions on behalf of the news publishing industry.

In December last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance asked the Centre to introduce a new digital competition law. 

It must be noted that most big tech companies such as Meta, Twitter, Google, and Amazon are under the scanner of the Indian government for allegedly violating the laws of the country and their alleged misuse of market dominance.

The 10-member committee was set up this month as a follow-up of the report.

The committee is chaired by Corporate Affairs Secretary Manoj Govil and comprises chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) Sangeeta Verma; Khaitan & Co’s Haigreve Khaitan; Chairman of Indian Angel Network and NASSCOM cofounder Saurabh Srivastava; retired professor of Delhi School of Economics Aditya Bhattacharjea; Pallavi Shardul Shroff of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, and more such names.

In October last year, the CCI slapped a cumulative penalty of INR 2,273 Cr on Google in two separate cases — abuse of its dominant position in the Android devices market and Play Store policies.

Meanwhile, the CCI is also probing Meta’s messaging platform WhatsApp.