One of the most profound aspects of Europe’s new Digital Markets Act is that it’s the first antitrust law to try to ward off future abuses by Big Tech, rather than limiting enforcers to punishing companies for abuses that they’ve already perpetrated.
Identifying potential miscreants and giving them clear ground rules, with swift comeback when those rules are broken, is an approach born of the frustrations that regulators have experienced when scrambling to keep up with the sector’s move-fast-and-break-things approach. And now India—the world’s most populous nation—may take much the same approach thanks to a recently proposed government bill.
Big Tech, understandably, doesn’t want this to happen. Reuters today reported on a letter sent by the U.S.-India Business Council to the Indian government, arguing that “targeted companies are likely to reduce investment in India, pass on increased prices for digital services, and reduce the range of services” in the country, should the Indian Digital Competition Bill come to pass.
A government panel proposed the bill in March and the consultation period just closed; the U.S.-India Business Council, whose board includes representatives of Google and Meta, submitted its comments at the last moment. Like the EU law, the Indian proposal would see Big Tech firms face fines of up to 10% of global annual revenue for sins like using personal data from one of the company’s services in another, or self-preferencing one’s own services in search results. Apple would be forced to allow third-party app stores in India, like it’s had to do in Europe.
The council isn’t the only lobbying group to come out swinging for the likes of Google, Apple, and Amazon. The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a U.S. think tank that’s funded by Big Tech and reliably speaks out in its interests, also responded to the Indian consultation with arguments against the new bill—this time in publicly released comments, unlike those submitted by the U.S.-India Business Council.
ITIF’s take was that switching to so-called ex-ante (i.e. before the event) antitrust regulation could only be justified when the market has failed, and “market failure does not appear to exist in India’s digital markets.” The think tank also warned of “deleterious effects on innovation” that could “stifle" India’s economic aspirations.
However, Indian startups have quite a different take, with dozens coming out in support of the bill. “We see it as a catalyst for creating a fairer and more competitive digital ecosystem in the country, one that allows startups to thrive,” they told the government.
It’s not clear what the Indian government will do next, now that the responses to its consultation are in, but if it pushes ahead with the bill, that will be a major endorsement of the new European approach to regulating Big Tech. And as for the levels of the fines that could be involved, up to 10% of global revenue is bad enough if you’re receiving such a fine in one place, but extremely damaging if different countries join in the fun.
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David Meyer
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