Parliamentary Panel Moots Digital Competition Act to Rein in Big Tech

A parliamentary panel on Thursday advisable the federal government enact a digital competitors act to manage anti-competitive enterprise practices by Big Tech corporations on its platforms.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities has had strained relations with many massive know-how corporations, and New Delhi has been tightening the regulation of corporations equivalent to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple have up to now confronted scrutiny from the nation’s competitors watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), over alleged abuse of the applying market.

“The Committee recommend that the government should consider and introduce a digital competition act to ensure a fair, transparent and contestable digital ecosystem, which will be a boon not only for our country and its nascent start-up economy but also for the entire world,” the panel stated in a report submitted in India’s decrease home of parliament.

The panel advisable the identification of high tech gamers as systemically essential digital intermediaries to counter monopoly and warned they “must not favour its own offers over the offers of its competitors” when performing as mediators to provide and gross sales markets.

Amazon and rival Flipkart are going through accusations of anti-competitive practices within the nation, equivalent to selling most popular sellers on web sites and giving precedence to listings by some sellers.

Companies together with Facebook (META.O), Twitter and Google (GOOGL.O) have for years been involved with many rules the federal government has proposed for the know-how sector, with corporations complaining about extreme compliance burdens. The complaints have typically strained relations between New Delhi and Washington.

Amazon, Google, Meta, Twitter and Apple didn’t instantly reply to request for remark.

A specialised digital markets unit ought to be established inside the competitors watchdog, the panel stated, including that aggressive behaviour of huge tech corporations must be monitored prematurely and never after markets turn out to be monopolised.

© Thomson Reuters 2022