Why should regulators act as an enabler for the disruption of emerging business models?
Today, the definition of the marketplace has undergone a seismic change. Rigid definitions no longer bind it. As technology continues to outpace regulation globally, there is a need to frame human-centric laws that can be applied to bot-centric transactions.
“Technology is both a disrupter of existing markets and amplifier of growth. Neither must the regulatory regime be too soft nor too stringent to kill innovation and disrupt emerging business models,” said Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs at a function organized to celebrate ten years of Competition Law Enforcement in the national capital. Mr. Thakur reiterated the need to have comprehensive guidelines to safeguard and nurture India’s entrepreneurial spirit.
On August 30th, The Competition Council Of India initiated a “Market Study on E-Commerce In India,” focused mainly on the e-commerce system, the competition landscape and issued faced by the participants. The stakeholders recognized for this study include online marketplace platforms, retailers(online and offline), manufacturers, service providers(hotels and restaurants), and payment systems.
The interim observations of the study reflect the emergence of online-only sellers and an increasing trend of marketplaces creating their private labels for better margin optimization. There are issues around neutrality of platforms. Online marketplaces employ an algorithm-driven approach to ensure high search ranking for “preferred sellers.” Sellers have no option but to participate in discounts and deals else their search ranking on online marketplaces gets affected.
CCI is open to feedback.You can send your suggestions/comments/inputs to ecodivision@cci.gov.in latest by September 30, 2019 to get your voice heard.
