consultantsreview logo

Consultants Review Magazine

X Supported India's Proposal to Enact New Legislation to Combat Big Tech

By Consultants Review Team Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Among international tech giants, only Elon Musk's X was categorically in favor of a law meant to address Big Tech companies' anti-competitive activities. The proposed Digital Competition Bill, which is now available for public comment, was included in the report. The measure provides severe sanctions if large tech corporations like Google, Meta, or X are discovered to be in violation of the statute, and it proposes different extra requirements for them.

Several international IT corporations disagreed with X over the necessity of an independent ex-ante digital competition legislation. Amazon argued that the Indian market is already severely regulated under the foreign direct investment policy, despite Meta's advocacy for more research on the sector before enacting such regulations.

Ex-ante regulation is opposed by Google, "except under certain conditions." Ex-ante regulation is the term for regulations that are put into place before possible problems or challenges arise. Apple adopted a reasonable stance. The corporation declared its support for "light touch regulations" as opposed to laws based on the Digital Markets Act of the European Union.

Indian businesses Zomato, Oyo, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Oyo were all opposed to the law. Paytm and MakeMyTrip supported the bill provided it only applied to a few major corporations. The study was conducted in response to the CDCL's 2023 study, which examined whether the nation required a distinct ex-ante statute to address Big Tech-related competitiveness concerns.

Stakeholders were asked to provide feedback on the need for digital competition legislation by the CDCL. In response, X, the former Twitter, along with a number of other Big Tech firms, their Indian counterparts, and industry groups, had made submissions.

Current Issue