New Delhi, Mar 17 () The Centre on Tuesday said thatit has proposed certain amendments to the Competition law forgreater regulation of e-commerce platforms and ensure thatpresence of etailers has no severe impact on local jobs.
Responding to a series of queries on this issue duringthe Question Hour, Corporate Affairs Minister NirmalaSitharaman said in Rajya Sabha that the cabinet has alreadylooked into the amendments.
"The Competition Act Regulation Amendments will now bringin greater regulation....The cabinet has looked into it. Thisis one of the ways we are trying to regulate (e-commerceplatforms)," she said in the Upper House. The amendments to the law have been proposed as per therecommendation of the Competition Law Reviewing Committee,under the chairmanship of Corporate Affairs Ministry, shesaid. On job loss, the Minister said such kind of impacts havebeen assessed by the committee and "action is being takenthrough various amendments suggested to the Act so that impactis not as serious." Prior to setting up of the committee, Sitharaman saidanti-trust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) hadmade efforts to promote self-regulation through advocacy fromJanuary this year after looking into a complaint it hadreceived in April last year.
However, a court order from Karnataka stopped the CCIfrom taking further steps on self-regulation, she said. In its report on the complaint, the CCI had identifiedseveral practices which were not true to the ideals of freeand fair market practices, she added. LUXDV DV