Big tech companies pose risk to free, fair digital market: FM

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that emergence of gatekeeper platforms has challenged free and fair digital markets even as she calls for global cooperation and agile regulation to tackle the rise of cross-border digital monopolies demands.

The finance minister was speaking at the 16th Annual Day Celebrations of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) here on Tuesday.

Gatekeeper platforms are large tech companies with significant market dominance, and which control a large number of digital services across the globe. Tech giants like Google and Amazon and Meta have constantly come under anti-trust regulator’s scrutiny across the world.

Sitharaman also expressed her concern on issues like market power, transparency, data access, algorithmic biases, and the scope of competitive harm that emergence of artificial intelligence can cause.

She praised the CCI for establishing the ‘Digital Markets Division’, which she says is a timely move, and is expected to become a centre of excellence in understanding technology markets, forging inter-regulatory partnerships, and engaging in global discourse.

Despite technology threatening fair market competition, the FM reiterated the importance of a light-touch regulatory framework based on principles and trust to unleash productivity and employment. She also advocated that regulators must be guided by the principle of ‘minimum necessary, maximum feasible’ in order to balance regulatory vigilance with a pro-growth mindset.