CCI Releases Report ‘Market Study on E-commerce in India: Key Findings and Observations’

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) released a Report titled ‘Market Study on E-commerce in India: Key Findings and Observations’.The Market Study on E-commerce in India (‘the study’) was initiated by the CCI in April 2019 with a view to better understand the functioning of e-commerce in India and its implications for markets and competition. The objective was also to identify impediments to competition, if any, emerging from e-commerce and to ascertain the Commission’s enforcement and advocacy priorities in light of the same.
The study has helped gather useful insights and information on the key features of e-commerce in India, the different business models of e-commerce players, and the various aspects of commercial arrangements between market participants involved in e-commerce. The study has also provided an opportunity to learn from business enterprises on how they are responding to the advent of digital trade and has helped gauge the key parameters of competition in digital commerce.
On the basis of the market study findings, the enforcement and advocacy priorities for the CCI in the e-commerce sector in India are, inter alia, the following:

• Ensuring competition on the merits to harness efficiencies for consumers
• Increasing transparency to create incentive for competition and to reduce information asymmetry
• Fostering sustainable business relationships between all stakeholders