India

Competition Commission of India, Digital economy, Digital markets, India, Merger control, Merger Thresholds

(The Dialogue)/ /Leave a comment

The Indian antitrust landscape has recently shifted its focus to the regulation of digital markets. To achieve this end, substantial changes to the country’s merger control mechanisms were proposed in the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (the Amendment/the Bill). One of the central purposes of these amendments is to prospectively analyse mergers and acquisitions that may…

European Union, Google, India

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In May 2020, Google integrated its free video conferencing service Meet into its free client mail service Gmail as a pre-installed service that can only be hidden, not deleted, by the consumers by modifying the settings. This conduct could be assessed in competition law as an abuse of dominance, namely a tying sensu stricto, consisting…

Digital markets, India, Regulation

(L&L Partners New Delhi)/ /Leave a comment

The digital payments sector in India has grown exponentially over the last five years due to deeper data and smartphone penetration. The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been the main driver of this growth. FY 2019-20 witnessed UPI transactions in India grow exponentially at the…

India, Merger control

(Samvad Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The unnecessary delay and piling up of cases are amongst the predicament of the Indian Judicial System. And the existence of this intricacy is not limited to the judiciary, it also stretches to other regulatory aspects and administrative systems across our country. Even specific tribunals and regulatory bodies are lagging behind in keeping pace with…

Abuse of dominance, Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, Digital markets, India, Jurisdiction

(SAI University) and (Aligarh Muslim University)/ /3 Comments

On 24th January 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) joined an exclusive club of competition law regulators around the world to initiate action in the area of privacy and competition law. The CCI passed a suo moto order directing an investigation into Whatsapp for alleged abuse of dominance as per the Competition Act, 2002…

Algorithms, Blockchain, India

(The Competition & Commercial Law Review) and (Sarthak Advocates & Solicitors)/ /1 Comment

While the skyrocketed technological advancements add immense comfort to human lives, they bring certain tied-up gifts for humans to ponder upon. One such technology which recently had an enormous outburst in the economic structures is that of blockchains. Blockchain is one of the most revolutionary consequences of the advancement of digital commerce which is arguably…

Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Privacy, Whatsapp

, (National Law University)/ /Leave a comment

The market landscape has drastically been altered with the rise of platform-based business models setting in motion a new wave of capitalism transforming the erstwhile relationship between consumers and businesses. The erstwhile practice of building up physical assets to highlight economic prowess has been replaced by a more subtle mechanism of increasing access to the…

Competition Commission of India, Competition policy, Gender equality, India

(The Dialogue)/ /Leave a comment

The law is blind. Competition law, however, has the potential to see through a gender lens. In World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2020, India ranked at 112th position in a list of 153 countries. According to a 2019 survey, the gender pay gap in the country was estimated to stand at 19%, where…

Competition Commission of India, Data protection, Digital economy, India, Investigations, Privacy, Whatsapp

, , (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /Leave a comment

On 24 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) passed an order initiating investigation against WhatsApp Inc. (‘WhatsApp’) and Facebook Inc. (‘FB’) to determine if WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy terms allowing it to share user data with FB and its subsidiaries constituted an abuse of dominance (‘Initiation Order’).[1] The Initiation Order shoves India’s competition…

Competition Commission of India, Digital markets, India, Interim measures

, (Nishith Desai Associates)/ /1 Comment

On 9 March 2021, the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) granted two hotel franchisees (Treebo and Fab Hotels) (‘Complainants’) interim relief against the hotel aggregator, MakeMyTrip India Pvt. Ltd. and the Ibibo Group Private Limited (‘MMT-GO’) (‘Interim Order’).[1] CCI directed MMT-GO to re-list Treebo and Fab Hotels on its website. Two things make the order…