Govt plans market study on Digital Competition Bill

IN AN EFFORT to revive the Digital Competition Bill (DCB), the ministry of corporate affairs is planning to rope in an agency to conduct market study on certain critical aspects of the bill.As perthe request for proposal (RFP) floated by the ministry, the market study will look into the qualitative and quantitative thresholds proposed under the DCB, and whetherthere’s a need to revise the thresholds specified in an earlier draft for the identification of Big Tech firms.

- MANU KAUSHIK

The thresholds proposed in the DCB are used to identify Systemically Significant Digital Enterprises (SSDEs) which will be subjected to ex-ante regulations, a proactive regulatory mechanism that sets rules for companies before the occurrence of potential harm. Under the current draft Bill, a company is considered SSDE if its annual India turnover exceeds ₹4,000 crore or global annual turnover is above $30 billion orits gross