MeitY meets industry bodies on concerns over Digital Competition Bill

The meeting was held at the IT ministry in New Delhi on June 18

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has met with industry bodies representing Big Tech, homegrown companies and Indian startups to hear out their concerns regarding the digital competition bill.

The meeting was convened by S Krishnan, secretary of the IT ministry and was attended by more MeitY officials, representatives of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Competition Commission of India. Industry members who attended the meeting on June 18 included IAMAI, Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), CCAOI, MakeMyTrip, Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) and Indian Newspaper Society (INS).

The MeitY is expected to hold more such industry meetings on this issue in the coming days.

Sources said the IAMAI raised the issue of how the Bill may have far-reaching effects on sectors such as investments. The body which represents a host of companies, including foreign Big Tech firms, Indian startups and major Indian tech companies, requested the government to take a relook at the threshold for designating a company as Systematically Significant Digital Enterprises (SSDEs).

The Digital Competition Bill says that a company can be designated as an SSDE if they meet certain, specific thresholds. If designated as an SSDE, these companies will be subjected to additional compliances.

These concerns allayed by the IAMAI are in line with the official submission that the trade body made to the MCA in May. The publication has reached out to the industry body with queries and the post will be updated when a response is received.

The ADIF, in contrast, advocated for the Bill. Sources said MakeMyTrip, like the IAMAI, also suggested a relook at the thresholds for designating a company as SSDE in the draft bill.

Revenue sharing a key point of discussion

A majority of the stakeholders, including IAMAI, ADIF, DNPA and INS, brought up the issue of revenue sharing with Big Tech companies.

The issue between Indian companies and Big Tech companies, particularly involving Google and Apple, centres around the 30 percent commission these tech giants charge on transactions made through their app stores.

Indian app developers, especially smaller companies and startups, argue that this high commission rate significantly reduces their profit margins and hampers their growth.

Media companies in India, especially news publishers, argue that they create valuable content but do not get a fair share of the revenue generated from it.

'Amend Competition regulation rather than...'

Sources said that civil society group CCAOI stressed on the need for inter-ministerial harmonisation of regulation, while pointing out that regulations such as the Digital Competition Bill may also have an inadvertent impact on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act.

The body also reportedly recommended specifically looking at the payments - revenue sharing issue, rather than overhauling the entire competition regulation system. Instead, it suggested, the existing competition regulation be amended.