legal issues concerning competition in media

8/12/2019 Legal Issues Concerning Competition in Media

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Legal Developments Concerning Competition

By SmarikaAlternative Law

smarika@altlawfo


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Tools Against Media Concentration

Prevention ofhorizontalintegration

Prevention ofcross-mediaownership

Prevenvert

integr

1. Regulation of anti-competitive agreements2. Regulation of abuse of dominant position in market3. Regulation of mergers and acquisitions which affect competition


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Collective Dominance in the DTH Sector to Curb

ConsumerOnline

Foundationv. Tata Skyand Others

Restrictive Conditionsfor Availing DTH

Services, eg. forfeitureof balance in subscriber

account uponunsubscribing

No Interoperability of SetTop Boxes, when

interoperability mandatedby MIB

Exclusive Dealings withonly certain Set Top BoxManufacturers, creatingbarrier entries for others

Tie-in arrangementswhereby to get DTH serv

purchaser must purchashardware from service

provider

Abuse of dominanposition by limitin

market access


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CCI declared such practices in DTH sector NOT anti-competitive. R

CCI says Indian law recognises no concept of collective domina

CCI decision appealed against, currently pending in COMSAT

Technical Infeasibility

Different compressiontechnologies for transmitteddata used by different DTH

service providers, sointeroperability not feasible.

Commercial Infeasibil

DTH industry requires huginvestment, therefore need

expand subscriber base to beven, before service provid

compete with each other


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Competition Between DTH providers and DTH Providers Accused of Predatory Pri

JAK Communications v. Sun Direct TV: MSOs allege predatory pricing agaproviders, aimed to kick them out of business as they compete with DTH sin same relevantmarket.

CCI: MSOs and DTH providers NOT part of same relevantmarketas DTcannot be regarded as interchangeable or substitutable. Reasons:

Different characteristics of product

Different pricing

Different intended use, based on distribution of TV channels, quality of signtransmissions, viewing experience, scalability, etc.

But for most consumers, DTH and cable compete with each other and aNEED TO RETHINK the idea of relevantmarket.


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Competition Between DTH providers and MSOs Accused of Collective Abuse of Dom

Dish TV v. Hathway and Others: DTH service provider alleges collective abposition against MSOs.

DTH service providers allege MSOs collectively determine exorbitantly hcharged from broadcasters for carrying the channels on their cable netwservice prices for DTH competitors.

CCI: Collective abuse of dominance, by different MSOs collectively in differmarkets where they are dominant, is not regulated by competition law in Ind

Need to analyse into Section 4(1) of Competition Act to see if collective abucan be interpreted into it.

2012 Draft Amendment of Competition Act: Proposes amendment of regulate collective dominance in relevantmarket.

TRAI has raised concerns about such abuse of dominance by MSOs in its Co

of 3rd

June 2013.


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Silencing Competition Online:Anti-Competitive Practices of Googl

2009: Bharatmatrimony moves Madras HC alleging using keywords like bharatunder Googles Adwords program to display adverts from rivals like Shaadi.cocomplaint.

2011: Eximcorp India Pvt. Ltd. approaches CCI alleging that the bidding proceGoogle to place advertisements on adwords is non-transparent, and therefodominant position in the online market.

February 2012: Bharatmatrimony approaches CCI with its complaint, CCI ordersGooglesbusiness practices.

June 2012: CUTS submits detailed report to CCI over several anti-competitive pract

October 2012: SC grants relief to Bharatmatrimony, directing Google to stoadverts if a user enters the search keywords, bharat matrimony or tambharatmatrimony.

March 2014: CCI fines Google Rs. 1 crore for not co-operating with investigation.

May 2014: CCI orders investigation into Googlesactivities for blocking competito

its own products in Audney Case.


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What Is the CCI Investigating?

Has Google abused its dominant position in the online search markebias or manipulation of search results, whether through manual changes?

Has Google created barriers to entry or expansion, in terms of investmtechnology, for Indian Internet companies by abuse of its dominant po

What are the terms and conditions for Googlesonline advertising serIs there lack of transparency in the process for bidding for keywords?

Does Google use predatory pricing to maintain its advertising searHow much does Google spend to run its advertising service?


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Areas of Concern

Need to regulate collective abuse of dominance by a grodominant players in a market like DTH, or cable.

Need to elaborate and clarify on the concept of relevantmand identify that certain services like DTH and cable are isubstitutable from consumerspoint of view, and hence part ofrelevantmarket.

Need to imagine competition principles for online spaces, eg. Sadvertising (like AdWords) and vertical search services (like Juswhere one can affect access to another, but may not intuitivelike a part of the same relevantmarket.

legal issues concerning competition in media

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