New law on digital competition likely to regulate Big Tech
digital competition law to regulate big tech, said people aware of the matter. The corporate affairs ministry is mulling a separate legislation instead of tweaking the existing Competition Act, which was amended recently, they said. «Given the complexity of the issue and differing views of stakeholders, introducing a bill to this effect will take time.
It will be a new law, so it will take some time,» said one of the persons, who did not wish to be identified. The government is not in a hurry to bring in a law on digital competition for the sake of it, the person said, adding that it intends to bring a law after comprehensive deliberations. «Even in countries like the UK and the US, the idea of a law to regulate large digital players has been under discussion for some time,» said the person.
An official committee under corporate affairs secretary Manoj Govil — set up to examine the need for any ex-ante regulatory mechanism for digital markets through a separate law and to study international best practices, among others — is set to complete the initial drafting of its report this month. It has concluded stakeholder consultations, including with local startups and big global players such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and Twitter. Large global technology companies have reportedly opposed the idea of ex-ante regulations in India.
The report is expected to form the basis of the government's next course of action. A second person said the extant Competition Act has already been amended this year to enable it to address contemporary issues and tackle fair trade concerns cutting across sectors. «So, there is no need to amend the existing Act again,» he said.
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