New Digital Competition Law: MCA-Appointed Panel To Begin Deliberations This Week

A 10-member panel set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) earlier this month to explore the need for a new digital competition law will reportedly begin deliberations on the matter from February 22.

Top representatives of six ministries and departments will participate in the first meeting, with the NITI Aayog and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) expected to make detailed presentations, people aware of the matter told the Hindu BusinessLines.

The report said that the panel is showing urgency given the committee has to submit a report within three months.

At a time when India is tightening regulations to rein in big tech firms and those like Google and Meta are subject of different probes, the MCA on February 6 constituted the panel to review the existing competition norms and the need for new legislation.

“The terms of the reference of the Committee are…to review whether existing provisions in the Competition Act, 2002 and the rules and regulations framed thereunder are sufficient to deal with the challenges that have emerged from the digital economy… (and)… to examine the need for an ex-ante regulatory mechanism for digital market through a separate legislation,” it said.

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

Besides, the panel also 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).

However, as per reports, not all stakeholders are satisfied with this formation of the committee. Digital news publishers and some startups have raised concerns over the lack of representation from them. 

In December last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance asked the Centre to introduce a new digital competition law in its recommendation in a report titled ‘Anti competitive practices by Big Tech companies’.

Since then, the government has been working on it at a fast pace. Various big tech companies like Meta, Twitter, Google, and Amazon are already under the scrutiny in the country for their market dominance.

Last year, the CCI levied a cumulative penalty of INR 2,273 Cr on Google in two separate cases for abuse of its dominant position in the Android devices market and Play Store policies. Google is still fighting against the CCI order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

The CCI is also probing Meta over possible abuse of the dominant position of its messaging platform WhatsApp through its contentious privacy policy update of 2021.

The Indian government has taken multiple steps to better regulate the digital ecosystem in the recent past. While there has been criticism from some quarters, the Centre has gone ahead with its plans and introduced a new digital data protection bill and various amendments to IT Rules.