Amol Kulkarni, Swasti Gupta, Parveer Singh Guhman & Ujjwal Kumar (Oxford Business Law Blog)
Globally, digitalization is expanding at an unprecedented pace. Rapid internet revolution has made multi-sided platforms (MSPs) ubiquitous in our modern economy. In India, ride sharing within urban transportation is one sector that has been significantly upended with the entry of MSPs. Owing to their distinct features, these Online App-based Platforms (OAPs) exhibit significant competitive pressure on traditional players. Concurrently, the enforcement of competition law with respect to MSPs generally and OAPs specifically is at an incipient stage. Particularly, the delineation of market definition of MSPs forms the hotbed of competition law discourse.
Ascertaining the relevant market encompasses the relevant product and geographic markets. According to the Indian Competition Act, 2002, a significant factor for the accurate delineation of relevant market is an intricate assessment of several factors, including ‘consumer preferences’. However, the extent to which consumer preferences are currently evaluated and relied on appears to be limited and lacks on-the-ground research…
