Govt plans legislation to pre-empt monopolistic practices of big tech cos

New Delhi The government is considering a proposal to frame laws that will allow regulators to pre-empt anticompetitive practices of large digital platforms, two officials said.

Big Tech often favours their own services or services of their subsidiaries on their platforms, the people added. The European Union (EU) has enacted ex-ante regulation to prohibit such practices, and India could consider the same after consulting all stakeholders, the people said, requesting anonymity.

“Like Europe, we may also have the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will prevent anticompetitive behaviour of dominant online platforms who act as digital gatekeepers ,” one of them, with direct knowledge of the matter said.