Disruptive technologies in the ICT arena require distinct approach while analyzing from antitrust and regulatory perspective: Professor Renato Nazinni

Distinguished Expert Lecture Series organised at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA)

Professor Renato Nazinni of Kings College, UK, said that disruptive technologies in the ICT arena require distinct approach while analyzing from antitrust and regulatory perspective. He was delivering the 2nd lecture in Distinguished Expert Lecture Series at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. He was speaking on “Competition Policy and Online Platforms: Challenges and Opportunities”, a topic of contemporary policy interest in India.

In his lecture, he provided comparative perspectives of European Union and USA in dealing with high-tech markets. Illustrating with the help of “low switching cost” for consumers and “multi-homing” in online markets, he underscored that “competitive process and innovation both need to be protected”. Through ‘error cost analysis’, he demonstrated that in antitrust cases, chilling effects on investments is exerted if the false prosecution takes place. Similarly, consumers are worse off if false acquittal of a company is allowed. He further elaborated that in the nascent online markets in India, “platform and product design” are central to success. Referring to objectives of competition law, through various recent case laws, he emphasized that the global consensus is now emerging to protect consumers and overall economic welfare.

Director General & CEO, IICA, Shri Sunil Arora, who presided over the academic gathering, said that “digitization has now become a norm in the country, but has to go far beyond.” He further stated that “digitization can be further boosted by improving the literacy standards”. Referring to the large consumer base in India, he underlined in his closing remarks that “this is the biggest strength today in the country”. He also cautioned that “markets are not perfect” and therefore “require careful policy anchoring to achieve larger public policy goals”.

Antitrust analysis for disruptive ICT must balance error costs to protect innovation and consumers in online platforms. Disruptive ICT technologies require a distinct regulatory and antitrust approach because online markets feature low switching costs and multi homing; both the competitive process and innovation must be protected. Error cost analysis is a key tool to weigh chilling effects on investment from false prosecution against consumer harm from false acquittal. Platform and product design are central in nascent markets, and policy measures like boosting digital literacy and careful policy anchoring support consumer welfare in imperfect markets.