The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday said it plans to undertake market studies on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to see how any concerns of competition issues on this new technology need to be addressed.
“We are very much interested in that (impact of AI). We will soon do a market study so that we can understand the market better, and we can look at whether there is any possibility of anti competitive practices and if so how they can be addressed”, Ravneet Kaur, Chairperson, CCI said here.
She was responding to a query on how CCI plans to approach the issue of impact of AI.
Kaur also said that CCI would post the market study look at whether AI could be self regulated and noted that the Commission was yet to commence any study on this front.
There are several important competition concerns around AI that has surfaced in the recent days. These include market dominance where large tech companies with substantial AI resources can dominate AI markets, making it challenging for smaller competitors to enter or compete effectively.
The other areas of concern in AI context are data access, intellectual property, privacy concerns, mergers and acquisitions, and international competition.
The global nature of AI means that countries with different regulatory approaches can affect competitive dynamics.
Kaur also said that the upcoming 8th BRICS International Competition Conference, to be hosted by CCI from October 11-13, would see the release of BRICS Joint Documents on Leniency Programme and digital economy reports. She also said that Competition Analysis in Digital Economy with focus on big technologies and algorithms would be discussed, among other areas.
GOOGLE CASES
Asked about the status of the two pending Google cases, Kaur said that the Google Smart TV case was under the consideration of the Commission.
“Smart TV case is currently under inquiry by the commission and news publishers case is still under investigation”, she said.
It maybe recalled that the issue of Google allegedly abusing its market dominance on the smart TV space goes back to June 2021. This anti trust case related to the US tech giant allegedly abusing its dominance in Android operating system and created barriers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for Smart TVs.
Smart TVs or Wi-Fi enabled TVs with apps for streaming services like YouTube and Netflix are now a rage in India.
More than ten million Smart TVs are sold in India every year.
Already Google and CCI are before the Supreme Court on the issue of ₹1,337 crore penalty (which Google has paid) and the ten behavioural remedies issued by the competition watchdog against the big tech. The case is next listed for the last week of January 2024.
APPLE CASE
On the ongoing case against Apple, CCI Chairperson said that the Commission was awaiting the report of DG (investigation) and would take action as soon as the report is submitted. “Apple is also under investigation and once we receive the DG (CCI) report, we will take action”, she added.
LENIENCY PLUS
Meanwhile, Kaur also said that CCI plans to soon issue draft regulations on “Leniency Plus” programme, a new cartel detecting tool —that would encourage companies already under investigation for one cartel to report other cartels unknown to the competition regulator.
The “Leniency Plus” regime was part of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2023, which received Presidential assent in April this year.
