Action: Parliamentary committee will send summons to giant technology companies including Google, the matter is related to competition law
At a time when several giant global tech companies are facing scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged anti-competitive activities, a key parliamentary committee on Wednesday appointed representatives of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and other companies. Decided to issue summons to The parliamentary committee has taken this step to examine the competitive behavior of these companies.
According to a report by news agency PTI, the next meeting of the committee on this issue may be held on May 12. The members discussed the issue in detail after the CCI made a presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in Thursday’s meeting. The CCI informed that it is setting up a Digital Markets and Data Unit and is bringing legislators to amend the CCI Act.
The CCI also explained its investigations against Google, Facebook-WhatsApp, Apple, Amazon, Flipkart, MakeMyTrip-Goibibo, Swiggy and Zomato in the digital space. The meeting comes in the backdrop of growing concerns over competition at the global level, including in India. The meeting explained the perceived practices of large technology companies and platforms that could adversely affect competition in the market.
How competition law is developing in India
Regarding this meeting, the chairman of the committee, Jayant Sinha said that we had important discussions with the officials of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and CCI. In the next meeting on this issue, we will convene major tech companies and discuss how competition law in India is evolving to address the needs and challenges of the digital space.
The committee will consider the competitive behavior of companies
Sinha, a BJP leader and former Union minister, said the committee would deliberate on the competitive behavior of these companies. He told that the CCI Act was brought in the year 2002 and the last amendment in it was done in the year 2007. According to sources, BJP member CM Ramesh raised the issue of cartelization in cement companies with the CCI officials. CCI’s response on this is expected in the next meeting.