In the backdrop of a slew of anti-competitive practices plaguing India's digital markets, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance insisted that the Union Government finalises the impending digital competition bill at the earliest as the earlier deadline of May has passed.
Parliamentary standing committees are a part of the legislative process in India, investigating matters of public interest in greater depth and producing expert viewpoints and recommendations.
In December 2022, the said committee recommended the identification and designation of leading digital market firms, as well as the introduction of a separate competition act for digital businesses in its submitted report on 'Anti-Competitive Practices by Big Tech Companies'. The report recommended the formation of Digital Competition Law, emphasised the need for ex-ante regulation and defined big tech companies as Systemically Important Digital Intermediaries (SIDIs) with the potential to impact competition in the digital ecosystem negatively.
Thereafter in February 2022, the government established the Digital Competition Law Committee (DCLC) to investigate the necessity of creating a separate law on competition in digital markets. The committee's report is currently pending. So, the finance standing committee requested that the digital competition law committee provide them with their findings as soon as possible.