DIGITAL COMPETITION BILL: ARE WE READY FOR IT?

Abstract

Indian digital economy is rapidly growing and is expected to account for 20 percent of India’s GDP by reaching US$ 100 billion by 2026. It might transcend the US to become the second largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034. Indian digital economy saw an increase from a meagre 13% to 55% between 2014 and 2024 in usage of phones, networks, and data.1 All of us would agree to the fact that e-commerce has changed the market paradigm and is completely algorithm driven. With the proliferation of e-commerce and digital platforms, many committees were formed in India to understand the dynamics of digital markets and provide recommendations to regulate practices of entities in such markets. Noteworthy among the recommendations were the recommendations of the Competition Law Review Committee, 2019 and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, 2022. The Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended for the implementation of a Digital Competition Act. Accordingly, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs established a Committee on Digital Competition Law (“CDCL”) which presented a draft Bill on Digital Competition in 2024. The present research analyses the proposed Digital Competition Bill as recommended by the CDCL. Part I of the research paper will introduce the topic and set the context for undertaking the analysis. Part II discusses briefly the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee. Part III will analyse important provisions of the Digital Competition Bill and Part IV will conclude with concluding remarks and suggestions.