Page 47 - Banking Finance December 2022

ARTICLE

mandatorily make use of their instore payment system and if store operators like google and apple from forcing app
a third party app developer tries to develop their own developers to mandatorily use there instore payment
payment system they are even removed from the app stores system. The law enacted by South Korea represents the
by citing their internal policies and terms and conditions. global momentum that is gaining towards regulating the big
tech monopolies.
So such force full and mandatory usage of instore payment
systems essentially qualifies to be seen as an anti- Even in Australia recently a law was brought out which
competitive, anti-trust policy which unfairly affects the app mandates internet platform and social media firms like face
developers and allows the high-tech companies to establish book and the others to pay media outlets for publishing their
a complete monopoly where they get to dominate the app content. Then in the European Union a draft law is being
based economy. Such anti-competitive, anti-trust practices worked out on similar lines to regulate the functioning of
of the big tech firms affects not just the small app developers big-tech firms like google, apple, facebook and the others
and the third parties but it even has a significant impact on have even faced several anti-trust, anti-competition
the consumer because such monopolization affects the investigations in the European jurisdictions.
choice that we have in the market. These companies which
In the United States as well, a group of senators have
have a dominant position in the market they can choose to
proposed a bill to regulate the functioning of the big-tech
determine what kind of access and choice we as consumers
firms around the world, they are even facing several legal
have in the market.
cases and legal challenges and in many jurisdictions anti-
This in turn stifles competition and even innovation and once trust, anti-competition investigations have been opened
choice and competition reduces automatically the cost will against the big-tech companies.
go up for the consumer because that is exactly what will
Even in India the Competition Commission of India is looking
happen in case of a monopoly so the third party applications
to open similar investigations against the likes of apple and
developers and the small app developers and the consumers
google. So in this context, it is the right time to say that the
would be placed at a severe disadvantage and they would be
time is right for India as well to follow the global trend and
placed at the mercy of these monopolies. So this is a grave
bring out an effective law to regulate the big tech
concern that has emerged with regard to functioning of big
companies which are seeking to establish their monopolies
tech firms and around the world. The governments are
and create a legal framework especially to regulate the
seeking to take action against the big tech firms by bringing
functioning of app store operators.
their policies and their services under the strict regulation.
The Indian government has recently extended support to
Recently South Korea became the first country to bring out
the establishment of the Open Network for Digital
one such regulatory policy which has been termed as the
Commerce, which is seeking to democratize e-commerce
anti-google law. South Korea recently amended its
around the world and recently the Indian government has
telecommunications business act in order to prevent app
shown the willingness and intentions to further regulate
internet and tech based companies. So if we have to protect
the truly open and democratic nature of the internet, then
governments will have to actively prevent the emergence
of such monopolies which end up stifling choice competition
and raising costs which affects the consumer and as well
as the whole industry.

Hence this is the appropriate opportunity which is calling
upon India, to make use of this momentum to bring in
adequate regulatory policies and laws to prevent the
formation of these monopolies in order to protect
technological innovation and the consumer choice in today's
app based economy.

BANKING FINANCE | DECEMBER | 2022 | 47