Aryan Sarckar & Roshan Chandrasekar, Symbiosis Law School, Nagpur
ABSTRACT
The topic titled as “Market Dominance and abuse of power by the e-commerce in India” seeks to analyse the interface between competition law and the e- commerce sector keeping in view the e-commerce retail market which has been propelled by the rising penetration of smartphones, laptops, the launch of 4G networks and increasing consumer’s wealth followed by an increasing acceptance of the idea of virtual shopping coupled by increasing participation of various enterprises in the electronics sector. However, it is evident that e- commerce has been inciting various set of anti-competitive issues which may be economic or otherwise, consequently calling for the vigilance of the Competition Commission of India. Thus, a need arises to analyse the e- commerce sector in light of the provisions of the Competition Act of 2002. In this regard the research paper seeks to define the e-commerce industry, explains the concept of dominance and abuse of dominant position while simultaneously elaborating upon the various practices amounting to abuse in the e-commerce sector. The research paper has also taken care in analysing the role of the Competition Commission in regulating the e-commerce sector in India by referring to various case laws. The term “dominant position” is used to represent an enterprise or a person that is having a “position of strength” in the market. This “position of strength” can be abused in its own favour. The “Indian Competition Act, 2002” discourages such abuse. The existing law believes that when the position of strength in the market is abused, it may lead to problems like – reduction of competition and inconvenience to consumers and competitors. In this research work, the “abuse of dominant position” defined under Section 4 of the “Competition Act, 2002” is studied along with the abuse of such dominant power on E-commerce and digital platforms which is nowadays the prominent market platform. This research is substantiated with various landmark case laws.
Keywords: Abuse of dominant position, Competition Act, 2002, Dominant position, E-Commerce, Joint Stock Companies, Position of strength.
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