2 days ago
CCI Warns AI Could Accelerate Anti-Competitive Digital Practices
India’s competition regulator is studying how artificial intelligence may change digital markets.
AI can help industries such as healthcare, education and logistics.
But it could also help companies act unfairly toward competitors.
Examples include showing their own products first or changing prices in ways that hurt rivals.
Some AI systems may even make these decisions without a person directly telling them to.
The Competition Commission of India wants to understand these risks before deciding how to respond.
Its chairperson said the regulator should not interfere immediately whenever new technology appears.
She also said companies may grow large, but they must not use their power to unfairly block competition.
CCI chairperson Ravneet Kaur warned that AI could intensify anti-competitive practices in digital markets.
Potential risks include self-preferencing, discriminatory pricing, tying, market manipulation and automated responses to competitors’ prices.
The CCI is examining whether agentic AI could carry out such conduct without direct human intervention.
Kaur said the regulator’s study on AI and competition was a first-of-its-kind detailed study conducted last year.
She said the CCI supports business growth and dominance but will act strictly against abuse of dominance.
- Who
- Competition Commission of India chairperson Ravneet Kaur and other CCI officials.
- What
- The CCI is examining how AI could accelerate anti-competitive practices in digital markets.
- Where
- At a national training programme-cum-workshop at the India International University of Legal Education and Research in Goa.
- When
- Kaur made the remarks on Monday, September 7; she also referred to a detailed CCI study conducted last year.
- Why
- To address emerging competition risks from rapid AI adoption while supporting innovation and legitimate business growth.
AI’s Benefits and Innovation
Competition Risks and Regulation
Impact of AI adoption
AI’s Benefits and Innovation
AI is providing benefits across healthcare, education, logistics and supply-chain management and can support business growth.
Competition Risks and Regulation
Rapid AI adoption may intensify digital-market problems and enable anti-competitive conduct to happen at much greater speed.
Regulatory response
AI’s Benefits and Innovation
The CCI wants to avoid regulation that hinders innovation or legitimate business growth and does not want to intervene immediately whenever a new trend emerges.
Competition Risks and Regulation
The CCI must study and address risks such as self-preferencing, discriminatory pricing, tying, market manipulation and automated responses to competitors.
Company size and dominance
AI’s Benefits and Innovation
Businesses should be allowed to grow and become dominant through merit and innovation.
Competition Risks and Regulation
Dominant companies must not use exclusionary or exploitative practices or abuse their market position.
Key facts
- Regulator
- Competition Commission of India (CCI)
- Speaker
- CCI chairperson Ravneet Kaur
- Potential risks
- Self-preferencing, discriminatory pricing, tying and market manipulation
- AI concern
- Agentic AI could potentially respond to competitors’ prices without direct human intervention
- CCI study
- The commission conducted a detailed, first-of-its-kind study on AI and competition last year
- CCI functions
- Antitrust enforcement, merger and combination regulation, and competition advocacy
- Regulatory approach
- The CCI allows companies to become dominant but acts against abuse of dominance
Quotes
Ravneet Kaur
Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India
“Digital markets are something we have been seeing for some time now, but there is something else which is also happening now - AI. What was going at a very fast pace in digital markets has turned like jet speed now because of AI.”
livemint.com
“We are okay with enterprises becoming dominant. We have nothing against dominance, against growth. But the abuse of dominance is where the CCI comes down very strictly.”
livemint.com
Sources
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