Money Control, September 04, 2026
A key growth engine in e-tailing, quick commerce’s widening appeal beyond everyday groceries into fashion, electronics, and beauty is likely to gather further pace this festive season, building on the gains during the recent festival-led shopping cycles.
The government and competition regulator are mulling e-commerce guidelines for neutrality, transparent algorithms, and non-discriminatory data access for small businesses. This aims to curb “search bias” and prevent platforms from favoring their own labels or preferred sellers.
The government and the competition watchdog are working on guidelines to mandate platform neutrality among e-commerce operators, bring transparency to search algorithms and ensure non-discriminatory data access for smaller businesses, thus offering them a level playing field, sources said.
The government is reviewing regulations under the competition law framework to either change them or issue new guidelines to curb “search bias” on e-commerce platforms, they said.
The changes aim to restrict marketplace operators from favouring preferred sellers or utilising third-party merchant data to aggressively promote their private labels.
In August, a parliamentary standing committee on finance suggested that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) notify an “e-commerce code of conduct”, which would “explicitly mandate platform neutrality, algorithmic transparency, and non-discriminatory data access for smaller business users”.
Platform neutrality means an e-commerce company must act as a neutral space rather than an active participant that favours its own commercial interests.
Without neutrality, the platform operator can give its private labels or preferred partners artificial advantages such as lower fee structures, exclusive promotions, or better visibility, putting ordinary small sellers at a disadvantage.
Small businesses, including local merchants and kirana stores, remain at a disadvantage due to lower bargaining power, higher operating costs, and limited resources. Several of them have raised these concerns with CCI as well, sources said.
In 2025, the All India Consumer Products Distribution Federation (AICPDF) accused the major quick commerce platforms of regularly selling products below cost and offering deep discounts. These tactics were “significantly harming small retailers and traditional kirana stores and threatening the very survival of traditional retail markets across the country”, AICPDF told CCI.
Financially strong platforms can absorb losses to undercut rivals until they exit the market after which prices can be raised again, it said, adding discounting created barriers to entry.
Response of CCI
According to the parliamentary panel’s report, a 2019-20 e-commerce market study by CCI identified structural bottlenecks that directly or indirectly stifle competition. It flagged lack of platform neutrality, unfair platform-to-business contract terms, exclusive contracts between online marketplace platforms and sellers/service providers, platform price parity restrictions and deep discounts.
“On the basis of the market study findings, the commission recommended the e-commerce platforms to put in place transparency measures in the areas of search ranking, collection, use and sharing of data, user review and rating mechanism, revision in contract terms, and discount policy with a view to address concerns while maintaining the innovative potential of the sector,” the CCI told the committee.
What do experts say?
Competition law experts say the standing committee may have taken cues from other sectoral regulators such as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to suggest the formulation of such a code. However, the powers granted to TRAI and SEBI differ from those of CCI.
“CCI’s power to make regulations under Section 64 of the Act is mostly procedural in nature and the language does not grant CCI power to issue any binding code of conduct for players. It may still take measures for competition awareness and advocacy,” said Pranjal Prateek, Partner at Khaitan & Co.
“The concerns identified in the e-commerce sector…are already substantially capable of being addressed under the existing framework of the Competition Act.”
Ashish Kumar Singh, Partner, Capstone Legal said: “The future lies heavily on purchases made online and e-commerce platforms cannot be left out of statutory purview. The current regulations are general in nature and lack the much needed clarity to ensure that e-commerce players operate fairly in the market.”
This news can also be viewed at:
https://www.moneycontrol.com/