Google in trouble over alleged unfair revenue sharing; CCI orders third probe

Subject :Economy

Context:

The Competition Commission has ordered another detailed probe against Google for alleged unfair revenue sharing terms with respect to news content.

Details:

The News Broadcasters & Digital Association has alleged that its members are forced to provide their news content to Google in order to prioritise their weblinks in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) of Google. Thus, Google free-rides on the content of the members.
It was alleged that Google exploited the dependency of the members on the search engine offered by Google for referral-traffic to build services such as Google News, Google Discover and Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
Google has also abused its dominant position to dictate terms and conditions of the Terms of Service of the Agreement, which unilaterally favour Google.

Competition Commission of India

Competition Commission of India is a statutory body responsible for enforcing the objectives of the Competition Act, 2002.
CCI was established by the Central Government with effect from 14^th October 2003, but it became fully functional on 20^th May, 2009.
Composition – A Chairperson and 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.
Formation of CCI:
- The CCI was established under the provisions of the Competition act 2002:
- The Competition Act, 2007, was enacted after amending Competition Act, 2002, that led to the establishment of the CCI and the Competition Appellate Tribunal.
- The government replaced the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in 2017.

Composition of CCI

The Commission consists of one Chairperson and six Members as per the Competition Act who shall be appointed by the Central Government.
The commission is a quasi-judicial body which gives opinions to statutory authorities and also deals with other cases. The Chairperson and other Members shall be whole-time Members.
Eligibility of members: The Chairperson and every other Member shall be a person of ability, integrity and standing and who, has been, or is qualified to be a judge of a High Court, or, has special knowledge of, and professional experience of not less than fifteen years in international trade, economics, business, commerce, law, finance, accountancy, management, industry, public affairs, administration or in any other matter which, in the opinion of the Central Government, may be useful to the Commission.
Function of CCI – To eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.