Panel to meet with representatives from Zomato, Flipkart, and tech companies regarding competition issues

In light of growing anti-competition concerns, a significant parliamentary panel will meet with representatives of major technological platforms, e-commerce businesses, and gaming entities, including Zomato and Flipkart, on Thursday to discuss their market behaviour.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, which is led by former Union Minister and BJP leader Jayant Sinha, has been investigating several facets of market competition, particularly with regard to technological giants.

According to Sinha, who spoke to PTI, the panel has agreed to call witnesses from a range of technological platforms, e-commerce companies, and gaming organisations in the near future. These witnesses would mostly be questioned about their market behaviour.The panel will also call representatives of the hotel aggregator Oyo, the taxi aggregator Ola, the food delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato, the e-commerce player Flipkart, and the All India Gaming Association, according to Sinha.

The committee will be hearing "comments of members of associations/industry stakeholders on the subject Anti-Competitive Practices by Big-tech corporations" on July 21, according to a notification posted on the Lok Sabha website.Recent accusations concern alleged anti-competitive practises by numerous digital platforms and businesses.

In response to complaints of suspected unfair business practises, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is already looking into a number of cases, particularly in the digital sector.The CCI provided the parliamentary panel with a presentation on April 28 about market competition-related issues.

Sinha had said that the panel's discussions with representatives from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and CCI were "an excellent set of discussions" after that meeting.