WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE AND ABUSE OF DOMINANCE: WHERE DOES THE INDIAN COMPETITION LAW REGIME STAND?

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

The advancement of the web has prompted the ascent of various kinds of stages that go about as intermediaries between customer groups. The development in the search engine market has not been exceptionally old in the advanced economy. There are web-based businesses to construct a crowd of people for advertisers. Most broadly utilized search engines are a lucrative choice for the advertisers as they get more perspectives alongside aggregated information by the search engines. Any calculation of the natural order of the links in search results adds up to a search bias. Such bias is inbuilt in the very plan of action of the search engines. Clients, for the most part, know about the utilization of their search query logs by the search engine companies and consent to it as it is a part of an exchange for which they are given assistance for free.

JOIN US ON TELEGRAM

Official Legalonus WhatsApp Group “Legalonus Community” join now!

Nonetheless, utilization of this data by outsiders or third parties is progressively tricky and might be objectionable with respect to unsuspecting clients and users. Further, Google contends that the retention of these query logs is basic to its capacity to operate and improve its services. It faces a daunting task to think about what a client expects, based on two or three words they enter as a search query, which makes Google the most broadly utilized search engine.

MARKET PRACTICES IN THE SEARCH ENGINES SECTOR

There are a few prevalent market practices in the search engines sector specifically which have been covered in the following paragraphs.

Predatory pricing like other anti-competitive practices is a consequence of mishandling the predominant position. Pricing one’s product underneath the incurred expenses with a point of dispensing with other market players who aren’t prevailing in the market and recovering initial losses in the future by expanding costs is the general concept of predatory pricing. Both predatory pricing and abuse of dominance share a genus-species relationship. Additionally one ought to concede that the market intensity of a company during the predation stage doesn’t disclose to us much about the market control during the post-predation stage and this is what the predatory pricing law should try to forestall. The law must consider the firms which are not yet prevailing or dominant fair share of their financial resources occupied with predation and eventually get control of the market. If the laws require fulfilment of the predominant position parameter at the hour of predatory pricing it can’t restrict firms that accomplish the prevailing situation because of predatory pricing. The facts may demonstrate that the competition policy is intended to secure competition and not to protect competitors, yet that complexity rather loses meaning where the main competition is the only competitor.

The line of distinction between the predatory and legitimate price in a competition is hard to establish in light of different key factors that decide the market cost. The similarly “efficient competitor benchmark” test is a usually utilized benchmark test while deciding anti-competitive pricing. The test analyzes whether competition can be kept up between a competitor and the predominant firm when it applies a similar end-client cost. Notwithstanding, multi-sided platforms charge various costs, one to each various side of the platform leaving the authorities with an equivocalness regarding which costs ought to be looked at and when are they against anti-competitive. Two-sided digital markets are witness to zero-pricing strategies[i].

Under some lawful techniques and procedures trial of recoupment of losses by the praying platforms is additionally inspected. One significant weakness with this test remains the two-sided stages that can recover losses from either side of the stage and be in the competition. With that, one can’t differ that determining future advancements based on specific limits, for example, market-entry, capacity, reputation and policies of a company offer very little reliability and accuracy.

JUDICIAL RULINGS OF INDIA AND OTHER JURISDICTIONS

The following case laws are significant for understanding the concept of Search engines in the context of competition law.

Google seems to have abused its predominant situation in India by making it harder for telephone creators to pick an alternative form of Android. The CCI’s order found that Google’s limitations on makers appeared to add up to the inconvenience of “unfair conditions” under India’s competition law. By making pre-establishment of its proprietary apps conditional, the CCI stated, Google “diminished the capacity and incentive of gadget and device makers to create and sell devices operated on alternate forms or versions of Android”, which “amounts to prima facie leveraging of Google’s dominance”. Google contended that Android was an open source platform and pre-installation obligations were restricted in scope. The complainants claimed that Google was occupied with anti-competitive practices “with the point of establishing Google’s prevailing position”. The CCI said Google’s “reprimanded lead may help propagate its dominance in online search markets while bringing about the refusal of market access for contending search applications”.[ii]
In the case of Matrimony.Com Limited v. Google LLC &Ors[iii], the said company alleged Google of discrimination in its search services by favouring its own vertical search properties. Another claim imposed was of Google selling catchphrases or keywords to imminent sponsors, independent of who held the trademark for the equivalent. The issues arose were:
Display of ‘universal results’ in fixed positions in the search engine results page (SERP), in deviation from the order of relevance;
Manipulation of the search algorithm to support its own search vertical services like Google flight, Google maps, and so forth which are noticeably shown in the SERP;
Forcing of unfair conditions in the syndication/intermediation agreements with website distributers.

Google highlighted the way that if it somehow managed to block auctioning keywords just to trademark proprietors, its activities would decrease client decisions and result in a monopoly of trademark proprietors. Despite the fact that the CCI concurred with Google as to the previously mentioned, clients might profit as it is simpler to analyze between products or services when there are several listings as results. The CCI saw Google as liable on three tallies[iv]: (I) It was discovered that positioning of Universal search results preceding 2010 was not strictly controlled and determined by relevance, and was even foreordained in certain cases. (ii) Google enjoyed noticeable display and arrangement of its own flight search services, disadvantaging other vertical search services (iii) It was discovered that Google imposed unfair conditions on advertisers through its exclusivity clause, that is, if an advertiser records an ad with Google, it isn’t allowed to publicize on some other search engine. The entirety of the above infringement pulled in a fine of Rs 136 crore from the CCI.

The European Commission’s conclusions propose that Google has figured out how to use and merge its market control by taking part in anti-competitive practices that are identified with online platforms.

The Google AdSense and Google Android choices are comparative in that both relate to Google trying to solidify its situation as the predominant online internet searcher with close equals that can be drawn to abuse of dominance cases. Google AdSense, identifies with the web’s principal advertising handling service which is owned by Google. AdSense is integrated free of charge by an immense range of sites looking to monetise their substance by earning revenue through commitment with advertising encouraged by AdSense. The European Commission found that Google has manhandled its predominant situation in this market by forcing certain confinements on third party websites utilizing AdSense including constraining them to solely use AdSense for advertising, reserve premium placement for Google search, and take a base number of AdSense advertisements. The Commission found no justifications for the impositions of these limitations other than to exclude Google’s rivals, for example, Microsoft and Yahoo from the market for online search advertising. The Commission considered that this brought about less choice for clients in choosing advertising services and more significant expenses eventually being passed to buyers or consumers.[v]

PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE SEARCH ENGINE SECTOR

After analyzing the concept, market practices and various case laws of Indian and parallel jurisdiction, a few of the problems arising out of the said sector have been discussed below.

First, entry deterrence removes gains from the provision of better or differentiated search engines. Regardless of Google’s innovative lead, diverse search engines can give results that are separated to profundity and scope of results, with various specificities, for various kinds of inquiries. Constraints to multi-homing thus make misfortunes for consumers. Second, anti-competitive tying makes it unthinkable for adversaries to build scale in search and successfully contend with Google, eliminating pressure on Google to diminish its edges in online advertising. This has negative ramifications for sponsors and, eventually, for buyers. It can likewise convert into a progressively intrusive promoting and bigger assortment of consumer data by Google without suitable choices for consumers. Third, entry deterrence in search can diminish Google’s incentives to put resources into advancement, as an unchallenged prevailing firm has a lower need to improve its technologies. This likewise decreases the motivating force for potential entrants to put resources into R&D in the business sectors for search engines and for programming applications by and large. All this leads to long-run misfortune for consumers.

CONCLUSION

The analysis of the development and attributes of the search industry shows that the search industry, including on the web search and search advertising markets, is a profoundly focused market with just a couple of players getting a charge out of huge market control. Besides, because of the commercialization of search combined with the features of the search industry, there is a developing potential for search engines to take part in anticompetitive conduct. Criticisms, for example, vague direction, absence of sound financial examination, the length of the procedures and the sketchy viability of remedies still prevail. It is significant that search engines guarantee transparency in their bias. It will guarantee that the rights of all stakeholders, for example, consumers, business ventures and residents by and large are ensured.

This Article is written by

Tejas Sateesha Hinder is a student of B.A. LLB (Hons.) at National Law Institute University, Bhopal. His areas of interest are Public International Law and International Commercial Arbitration

Tanshika Saxena is a student of B.A. LLB (Hons.) at National Law Institute University, Bhopal. Her areas of interest are Commercial Laws and Dispute Resolution.