This paper looks at digital platforms that provide “free” services and analyses the application of Indian competition law to them. It elaborates on why the scale and characteristics of zero-price digital platforms pose unique challenges to traditional regulatory practices. A critical examination of the traditional approach to estimating consumer welfare loss and why that falls short in this case follows. The paper ends with a discussion on the evolution of Indian competition law and arguments for why a ‘form- based approach’ is more appropriate than an ‘effects-based approach’ while regulating zero-price digital platforms. It specifically advocates for adopting users’ loss of control over data as a per se standard to limit abuse of market power by zero-price platforms.

• Antitrust
• Regulation
• Bigtech