DMA’s Hidden Victims: What India’s Digital Competition Bill Must Learn Before It’s Too Late

This article is originally published in Competition Policy International at DMA’s Hidden Victims: What India’s Digital Competition Bill Must Learn Before It’s Too Late. 

India’s Digital Competition Bill (DCB) proposes a prohibitory rules framework for digital enterprises. This is the same framework the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance sent back for revisionin 2025, with the discussion driven by concerns about the reach of large platforms, the advantages they accumulate, and the difficulty smaller players face in dislodging them. The DCB seeks to intervene early and prevent competitive harm before it occurs.

Whether India needs a bill of this kind at all is a debate worth having on its own terms, and one that requires a separate discussion. However, a narrower question can be answered now: assuming such a framework is enacted, would it actually work?