Finalise digital competition law at the earliest, says parliamentary committee

CCI

The parliamentary standing committee on finance has urged the Union government to finalise the digital competition bill at the earliest in order to check the anti-competitive practices plaguing the digital markets.

The committee, in its 63rd report dated July 27, has noted that the government had earlier informed that the digital competition law would be finalised by May 2023, however since the deliberations are ongoing, it has recommended that the law be finalised at the earliest.

In December, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance released a report that, apart from the formation of a Digital Competition Law, recommended defining Big Tech companies as Systemically Important Digital Intermediaries (SIDIs) on the basis of their revenues, market capitalisation and end users.

It also urged Big Tech firms to provide advertisers and publishers with access to performance-measuring tools and data necessary for them to carry out independent verification of advertisements.

A few months after that, in February, the government formed the Committee on Digital Competition Law or CDCL, which was tasked with examining the “need for a separate law on competition in digital markets”.

Complete cadre restricting at CCI soon:

The report further noted that the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which is the country's anti-trust watch dog, is currently understaffed as it has 70 vacancies at present as against a sanctioned staff of 195. According to the committee, the government has kept the recruitment process in abeyance owing to cadre restructuring. The committee has urged the government to expediate cadre restructuring so that the CCI is fully prepared to fulfill its duty as an anti-trust regulator.