CCI ruling on Google, digital bills key for a transparent ecosystem in India

In late August, the govt released a draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, which is likely to be passed during the Monsoon session of Parliament in 2023. In October 2022, the Indian govt announced changes to its information technology (IT) rules that will apply to social media businesses. The new regulations mandate that intermediaries like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, among others, abide by the terms of the Indian Constitution and the country's domestic laws

The year 2022 was a landmark year with regard to litigations and legislations in India in promoting a fair and transparent ecosystem in the country and laying the right platform for startups and smaller players to flourish. In late August, the government released a draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, which is likely to be passed during the Monsoon session of Parliament in 2023.

In October 2022, the Indian government announced changes to its information technology (IT) rules that will apply to social media businesses. The new regulations mandate that intermediaries like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, among others, abide by the terms of the Indian Constitution and the country's domestic laws.

When it comes to the revised IT Rules, the government has mandated that users' complaints be acknowledged by the companies within 24 hours, and that they be resolved within 15 days, or 72 hours in the case of an information deletion request. The creation of "Grievance Appellate Committees," which must be appointed by the government, is mandated by the new legislation for handling user complaints on social media.

Social media businesses are obligated to designate executives to cooperate with law enforcement and have an internal grievance resolution officer. Due to these changes, intermediaries are now required by law to make reasonable efforts to stop users from uploading dangerous or illegal content.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill on the other hand, proposes stricter penalties for data breaches as well as laws for data localisation. It recommends setting up a Data Protection Board to monitor compliance and imposing fines of up to Rs 500 crore on any corporations that do not comply. These steps were imperative as tech giants have become more and more dominant in the market in various domains and an ex-ante approach to keep them in check is the right remedy.

For instance, the penalties imposed by the CCI on Google revolve around how the tech behemoth has abused its dominant position in the market to resort to unfair practices in the android mobile operating system (OS) and the play store ecosystem.

This shows proactiveness on the CCI's part, which is one of the few competition regulators across the globe to have taken timely measures to ensure that the ecosystem provides a level playing field for all players.

While CCI's verdict against Google is monumental in itself, the legislations that the government has introduced are also significant. Further, the Parliamentary Standing committee on Finance recognised the abusive behaviour by a few large corporates and recommended identifying the small number of leading players that can negatively influence competitive conduct in the digital ecosystem, as 'Systemically Important Digital Intermediaries (SIDls)'. Also, the Committee has recommended introducing a Digital Competition Act to ensure a fair, transparent and contestable digital ecosystem.

(Dr Ritesh Malik is Director, Alliance for Digital India Foundation, or ADIF, the unanimous voice for digital Indian startups)