The role of the Competition Watchdog in the new age market is to ensure that platforms remain neutral, the playing field is at a preferential level.

The role of the Competition Commission in new age market cases is to ensure that platforms remain neutral, provide a level playing field, and allow businesses, large or small, to can compete properly, a top management official said Friday.

Noting that the regulator has examined more than 1,100 cases of anticompetitive agreement and abuse of dominant position in various sectors since its inception, CCI President Ashok Kumar Gupta said the enforcement tool has been applied with caution.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is tasked with keeping a tab on unfair business practices across sectors. According to him, there has been a steady increase in cases reviewed by the CCI stemming from new-age markets, including search engines, online marketplace platforms, app stores and payment gateways. from online travel, food aggregator, taxi aggregator and social network.

“Such cases involving search bias, pre-pricing, deep discounting, self-priority, and leverage are directly related to the competition law regime.” Parties in the digital market, which remain neutral, provide a level playing field and allow businesses, large or small, to compete on a merit-based basis,” said Gupta.

In these dynamic and fast-paced markets, he said the regulatory stance needs to be nuanced and the enforcement toolbox needs to be adapted to these changes for the tool to remain relevant. with purpose.

“The challenge is to stay abreast of the developments in these markets and continue to develop and refine the tools. This will help to implement timely interventions and strike a good balance to efficiency. and innovation is not stifled and markets are not affected by anti-competitive practices,” he added.

Speaking at a conference organized by the industry regulator CII, he also said that to overcome market-distorting practices, the regulator has effectively used a combination of two tools of enforcement and advocacy. policy.

“The enforcement tool has been applied in a calibrated manner, with interventions implemented only in cases where business conduct has been found to seriously disrupt market processes and silence compete.” its remedies appropriately,” he added.

Gupta said that while digital inroads boost competition by creating more opportunities, bringing transparency to online intermediaries and reducing search costs for consumers, on the other hand, the platform An increasingly technology-laden economy is presenting new issues and concerns to competition policy discourse.