Bharat Matrimony, Match Group And Others Oppose IAMAI's View On Digital Competition Bill

Four members of the Internet and Mobile Association of India have penned a letter to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, expressing divergent views from the industry body's recent submission on the draft Digital Competition Bill.

In a letter to the ministry, four digital companies—Bharat Matrimony, Tinder and Hinge operator Match Group, ShareChat, and Hoichoi—have expressed a divergent view from the submission made by IAMAI, stating that the regulations should be ex-ante and not post-ante.

Ex-ante means that regulations should be pre-emptive measures, aimed to disallow or discourage certain practices before they occur. The current competition law, the Competition Act (2002), works on an ex-post framework, where Competition Commission of India jumps in after an anti-competitive act has occurred.

"IAMAI’s submission is not reflective of the entire digital startup ecosystem or IAMAI’s diverse membership of over 540 companies, as only a miniscule percentage of these members have opposed the ex-ante provisions introduced by the DCB. Yet, the submission predominantly echoes this minority perspective," they said in a letter reviewed by NDTV Profit.

The four members said the opposition of ex-ante regulations and continuation of the ex-post regime, will lead to status quo being maintained and allow entrenched Big Tech players to continue exploiting regulatory gaps to stifle competition and innovation.

"While we share similar concerns over the thresholds for designation of Systemically Significant Digital Enterprise, IAMAI’s submission on the rest of the draft DCB seems to present obtuse concerns, which go against the broader imperative of fostering fair competition across all core digital services in India," the letter stated.

The four members urged the ministry to move forward with the draft bill at the earliest. In March this year, the Committee on Digital Competition Law published its report outlining the challenges associated with anti-competitive practices of digital enterprises, such as anti-steering, self-preferencing, tying and bundling in the digital markets in India.

The report proposed a Digital Competition Bill providing for ex-ante regulations to curb these anti-competitive practices. As part of the public consultation process, IAMAI had submitted its comments on the report opposing the ex-ante regulations proposed in the bill, which these four members have opposed.