Google, Amazon and the Apple lobby group oppose India’s EU-World-style antitrust proposal

NEW DELHI: A US lobby group representing tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple has asked India to rethink its proposed EU-style competition law, arguing that regulations prohibiting data exploitation and preferential treatment of partners could raise costs for users, according to a letter.

Citing the growing market power of several large digital companies in India, a government panel in February proposed imposing obligations on them under a new antitrust law that would complement existing regulations that the panel said were “time-consuming” to enforce.

India’s “Digital Competition Act” builds on the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act 2022. It will apply to large companies, including those with a global turnover of more than $30 billion and whose digital services have at least 10 million users locally, resulting in that some of them are the world’s largest technology companies within their reach.

It proposes banning companies from using non-public data of their users and promoting their own services over competitors, as well as lifting restrictions on downloading third-party applications.