11 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – INDIA E-MAGAZINE WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM Law Firm Hires ABHIRAJ ARORA LEAVING Economic Laws Practice JOINING Saraf and Partners PRACTICE Securities LOCATION New Delhi POSITION Partner JIVESH CHANDRAYAN LEAVING HSA Advocates JOINING Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan PRACTICE M&A LOCATION New Delhi POSITION Partner REVANTA MATHUR LEAVING Anand and Anand JOINING Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas PRACTICE Intellectual Property LOCATION New Delhi POSITION Partner SANJIT NAGARKATTI LEAVING Ola Electric JOINING Economic Laws Practice PRACTICE General Corporate LOCATION Bengaluru POSITION Partner SIDDHARTH VEDULA LEAVING N/A JOINING Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas PRACTICE Real Estate LOCATION Mumbai POSITION Partner The DCB’s focus is rightly on ensuring fair competition in the digital market by preventing abuse of dominance. However, its recommendations suffer from a lack of extensive stakeholder discussions and a failure to understand the need for regulatory freedom for innovation-led market growth, which is the lifeblood of the tech industry. “The introduction of the exante digital competition law could stifle innovation by imposing overly burdensome regulation on digital companies. Any regulatory intervention that hampers innovation could have far-reaching consequences, stifling creativity, and impeding breakthrough developments in technology and services,” Nanda says. Furthermore, the law may have unintended consequences that make market access a lot harder for smaller tech players, who rely on potential SSDEs like Google, for targeted advertising, identification services and discoverability. WHAT WILL BE ITS EFFECT ON THE LARGER TECH MARKET? A survey by New Delhi-based policy think tank Esya finds that 61 percent of surveyed MSMEs indicate that limitations placed on targeted advertising of large digital platforms under the DCB will have a negative impact on them. It also found that 6 out of 10 MSMEs would be negatively affected by restrictions on sign-in services of digital platforms. This ratio is twice as high as that of those in favour of such restrictions. Nanda also questions whether the suggested ex ante regulation could really lead to the changes intended in the tech space. “Many customers of the large digital platforms are satisfied with the services, ecosystems and possibilities that these platforms offer.” Google, which follows a nearidentical law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), in the European Union, reported early responses to DMA compliance. While traffic to a small number of successful digital intermediary services increased, direct engagement with a wide range of businesses like airlines, hotels, local merchants and restaurants significantly decreased. The DCB also increases compliance burdens, and “digital enterprises will be required to make significant operational and strategic changes to their internal infrastructure and business models,” Nanda says. “This may involve enhancing internal governance structures, implementing monitoring, and reporting mechanisms, and engaging with regulatory authorities to address compliance concerns and inquiries. While the proposed law aims to promote innovation by fostering a more competitive digital ecosystem, compliance requirements may influence the direction and pace of innovation initiatives,” he adds. u
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