Anti-trade concerns: Parliament panel to meet reps from Zomato, Flipkart, others

A key parliamentary panel will meet representatives of various technology platforms, e-commerce players and gaming entities, including Zomato and Flipkart, on Thursday to discuss their market behaviour amid rising anti-competition concerns.

BJP leader and former Union Minister Jayant Sinha-chaired Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has been looking into various aspects of competition in the marketplace, especially with respect to technology majors.

Sinha told PTI that the panel has decided to ask representatives of various technology platforms, e-commerce players and gaming entities to appear before it soon, and they will be mainly asked about their market behaviour.

Representatives of food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, e-commerce player Flipkart, cab aggregator Ola, hotel aggregator Oyo and All India Gaming Association are among those who will be called by the panel, Sinha said.

According to the notice available on the Lok Sabha website, the committee will be hearing “views of representatives of associations/ industry stakeholders on the subject Anti-Competitive Practices by Big-tech companies” on July 21.

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In recent times, there have been complaints about alleged anti-competitive ways of doing business among various technology platforms and firms.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is already probing various cases, especially in the digital space, following complaints of alleged unfair business practices.

On April 28, the CCI made a presentation about competition aspects in the marketplace to the parliamentary panel.

After that meeting, Sinha said the panel had “an excellent set of discussions” with officials from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and CCI.

(With Agency Inputs)