Fwd: Invitation for a panel discussion - Fair and competitive E-marketplaces in India | The Business Users' Narrative - 23rd September 2021

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Sudhanshu Kumar

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Sep 20, 2021, 11:12:40 AM9/20/21

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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Manjushree RM <manju...@vidhilegalpolicy.in>
Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2021 at 4:39 PM
Subject: Invitation for a panel discussion - Fair and competitive E-marketplaces in India | The Business Users' Narrative - 23rd September 2021
To: <sudh...@nalsar.ac.in>

Dear Sudhanshu sir,

I hope you have been well. I am writing to invite you to a panel discussion organized by the Competition Team of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

I will be presenting Vidhi's new working paper titled 'Fair and Competitive E-marketplaces | The Business Users' Narrative' during this panel discussion on 23rd September 2021, at 6 pm IST. The paper highlights the lacuna in the Indian legal framework in regulating platform-to-business (P2B) relationships. Consequently, the persisting asymmetry in bargaining powers between E-marketplace giants and small sellers that operate upon it, has led to several allegations of unfair trade practices such as self-preferencing, opacity in collection and usage of consumer data, and skewed search rankings and reviews being routinely levelled against such E-marketplaces. The paper also studies the emerging global regulatory responses in addressing similar issues between platforms and its business users.

The discussion will feature Dr. Cristina Caffarra, Dr KP Krishnan and Mr. Rahul Matthan as panelists.

I hope you will find this discussion useful and be able to partake in this . I would also be very grateful if you could circulate this amongst student groups in NALSAR. It may be particularly useful to those that have an interest in competition & technology policy. The registration and participation is free for all. Please register using the link in the invite below.

Thank you,

Warm regards,

Manjushree RM

Research Fellow, Competition Team

Fair and Competitive E-marketplaces in India
The Business Users’ Narrative

The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy cordially invites you to an online discussion on ‘Fair and Competitive E-marketplaces in India - The Business Users’ Narrative’ on 23rd September 2021 at 6pm.

India is touted to have the 3rd largest online shopper base globally, only behind China and the US. The COVID-19 pandemic has further fuelled the transition from offline to online consumption by consumers. As a natural corollary, presence on large digital platforms has become unavoidable for sellers/business users to reach consumers. The unavoidable dependence by business users on online platforms has enabled certain technology giants to act as ‘gatekeepers’ for various segments of the market.

Allegations of unfair and anti-competitive practices by E-marketplaces have come to be routinely levelled by business users. This includes practices such as deep discounting, self-preferencing of private labels owned by platform operators, and lack of transparency regarding search rankings, reviews and usage of data. Existing laws and policies targeted at the regulation of digital platform-to-business user (‘P2B’) relationships are proving to be either misdirected or inadequate.

Given the fact that India is one of the largest markets for E-marketplaces coupled with the significance of SMEs relying on digital platforms for our economy, the inherent power imbalances in P2B relationships merit due regulatory attention.

Vidhi’s new working paper ‘ Fair and Competitive E-marketplaces (F.A.C.E.) | The Business Users’ Narrative’ examines issues arising in the relationship between digital platforms and their business users. It studies the regulatory landscape as applicable to E-marketplaces in India from a business users’ lens and surveys practices in regulating large incumbent ‘gatekeeper’ platforms across 7 international jurisdictions.

Against this background, the Panel Discussion seeks to start an important conversation on building a contestable and fair e-commerce ecosystem in India.

Speakers

DR. KP KRISHNAN, IEPF Chair Professor in Regulatory Economics
DR. CRISTINA CAFFARRA, Senior Consultant (European Competition), Charles River Associates, UK.
MR. RAHUL MATTHAN, Founding Partner and Head of Technology Practice Group, Trilegal

VEDIKA MITTAL KUMAR, Lead, Competition Law team at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, will moderate the session.

For any questions or queries, please email: compe...@vidhilegalpolicy.in

The Event will also be broadcasted live on Vidhi's Facebook page.

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