Parliamentary Panel Talks Anti-Competitive Practices With Startups

Parliamentary panel meets with top executive of tech startups to discuss anti-competitive practices of Big Tech

SUMMARY

Startup execs including Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal and Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy were at the meeting

The startup executives pointed out a number of issues such as predatory pricing and a lack of platform equality to the Standing Committee on Finance

The panel has previously met MCA, CCI, CAIT and representatives from the media and hospitality industries to discuss anti-competitive practices

The top executives of tech startups such as Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Ola, OYO, Paytm, Swiggy, Zomato and more met a parliamentary panel behind closed doors on Thursday to discuss several issues pertaining to “anti-competitive practices” of global tech majors.

The development comes after the parliamentary panel summoned the said representatives from the startup ecosystem, per a notice on the Lok Sabha website dated July 6.

In attendance were Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal, Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and MakeMyTrip cofounder Deep Kalra, along with Swiggy’s vice president Avantika Bajaj and All India Gaming Federation CEO Roland Landers.

The startup executives pointed out a number of issues with big tech companies spanning predatory pricing and a lack of platform equality to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, led by the Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha.

An ET report citing sources stated that the meeting between the parliamentary panel and tech startups covered topics such as regulating user data, defining the market for emerging internet businesses and more. The development comes as the government has brought and is planning to bring a number of more regulations for multiple tech startup sectors including fintech and ecommerce.

Speaking to ET, Sinha confirmed the meeting with “heads of some of the leading platforms,” on Thursday.

Sinha added, “Digital markets operate differently from traditional markets so the competition law also needs to be developed to address these needs. We have also had discussions with partners and vendors associated with digital platforms.”

According to Sinha, the Standing Committee on Finance is examining the digital economy and evaluating changes to competition law to take care of the issues that digital markets bring with them.

The parliamentary panel has also summoned top executives from big tech, including Amazon, Google, Meta and Twitter for a meeting next week. Speaking of big tech, at yesterday’s meeting, startup leaders shared their doubts about these firms.

In particular, Google Play Store’s 30% cut on in-app purchases was a topic that came up during the discussions.

This is not the first time the standing committee has held a meeting with industry stakeholders about the anti-competitive practices of big tech firms.

In May, the MoS Finance-led parliamentary panel hosted representatives from hospitality, restaurants & travel agents associations, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and digital media and newspaper associations to discuss the same.

Before this, the parliamentary panel met the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Competition Commission of India (CCI) to discuss the said anti-competitive practices.

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