Competition laws in focus amid Google, Paytm tussle

The tussle between tech giant Google and payments unicorn Paytm has put the focus back on India’s competition laws pertaining to digital markets. “For long, Google and Apple have been exercising too much control over app developers. This episode shows that it can happen anytime and with any apps. This time they played by the rules, but they can always make these decisions to suit their business interests,” said Gurshabad Grover, senior policy officer at Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

There is “no clear judgement” when it comes to the Play Store and App Store, about whether they are intermediaries, such as Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms, Grover said. “In the Fermat Education vs Sorting Hat Technologies case of 2018, Madras high court specifically said that if you are pre-screening uploaded content or if some sort of money is involved, then you are moving away from the definition of intermediary, which protects you from liability,” he said.