New Delhi: The government consulted over 100 entities, including some businesses likely to be affected by the proposed digital competition law, such as Amazon, Apple India Pvt. Ltd, Flipkart and Google and their suggestions are under consideration, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The minister told the House in a written reply that the pre-legislative consultation on the draft Digital Competition Bill was conducted as per the policy of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The minister said that during the drafting of the bill, closed-door consultations were held in March 2023 with institutions and stakeholders who would be affected by the law.
“Over 100 stakeholders ranging from legal professionals, industry associations, civil society organizations and domestic and foreign digital enterprises providing digital services in India submitted responses,” the minister said.
The minister said that after this, public feedback was sought on the draft bill in e-consultation mode this year. The minister said, the suggestions are being examined.
Stakeholder discussions were also organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in June.
The Bill seeks to protect competition in the market and proposes a code of conduct east east Regulation to prevent irreversible degradation of the market by dominant digital players.
The current system of investigation of anti-competitive practices by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is considered both resource and time intensive in achieving market reforms. The proposed law borrows the concept of digital market gatekeepers, who must follow a code of conduct, from the EU’s similar law, which came into effect from May 2, 2023.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act covers large digital platforms that provide core platform services such as online search, app stores and messenger services, and they must comply with certain obligations as well as prohibitions. Gatekeeper entities, termed systemically important digital enterprises in the Indian Bill, will be identified by financial and market presence criteria.
