AI May Accelerate Anti-Competitive Practices in Digital Markets: CCI Chief Ravneet Kaur

Panaji: The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) could amplify anti-competitive practices in digital markets, Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairperson Ravneet Kaur has warned, highlighting emerging concerns around self-preferencing, discriminatory pricing, tying and market manipulation.

Speaking at a national training programme-cum-workshop for law students at the India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER) in Goa, Kaur said AI was accelerating changes in digital markets that were already taking place at a rapid pace.

AI Could Take Digital Competition to 'Jet Speed'

Kaur said businesses across sectors are increasingly adopting AI tools and applications, creating significant benefits in areas such as healthcare, education, logistics and supply chain management.

At the same time, she cautioned that AI could also be used to replicate or intensify anti-competitive behaviour already observed in digital markets.

According to Kaur, developments that were previously moving at a very fast pace in digital markets have effectively accelerated further because of AI. She said the regulator therefore needs to understand how these technologies could affect competition and market behaviour.

Agentic AI Raises New Competition Concerns

One of the key areas being examined by the CCI is agentic AI, which can potentially perform tasks and make decisions with limited or no direct human intervention.

Kaur explained that AI systems could theoretically monitor competitors' pricing and automatically respond by matching or reducing prices. Such autonomous behaviour could create new competition concerns if algorithms independently coordinate or influence market outcomes.

The concern becomes particularly significant as businesses increasingly deploy AI agents to perform functions that were traditionally handled by employees or through manually controlled software systems.

The CCI is therefore examining whether autonomous AI systems could facilitate practices such as price manipulation or other forms of anti-competitive conduct.

Self-Preferencing and Discriminatory Pricing Under Watch

The competition regulator is also looking at traditional digital-market concerns through the lens of AI.

Self-preferencing, for example, occurs when a platform gives preferential treatment to its own products or services over those offered by competitors. AI-driven recommendation and ranking systems could potentially make such practices more complex to identify.

Similarly, discriminatory pricing and automated pricing could create challenges for competition authorities if algorithms dynamically change prices based on market conditions, consumer behaviour or competitor activity.

Tying — where access to one product or service is linked to another — is another practice that could require greater scrutiny as digital ecosystems become increasingly integrated.

CCI Conducted First-of-Its-Kind AI Competition Study

Kaur said the CCI had undertaken a detailed first-of-its-kind study on AI and competition last year to better understand the potential risks and opportunities created by the technology.

Rather than immediately intervening whenever a new technology or market trend emerges, the regulator prefers to study developments and understand their implications before deciding on an appropriate response.

Kaur said market studies are particularly important in India because of the country's large and rapidly growing startup ecosystem.

Such studies can help regulators identify potential competition concerns while also giving businesses greater clarity about emerging regulatory expectations.

CCI Not Against Dominant Companies

Kaur also clarified that the CCI's objective is not to prevent companies from becoming large or dominant.

She said the regulator has no objection to businesses achieving scale or market dominance through growth, innovation and competitive performance. The concern arises when companies abuse their dominant position or use exclusionary and exploitative practices to restrict competition.

The distinction is important for India's technology sector, where several digital platforms have rapidly expanded their market share.

The competition regulator's focus, therefore, is on ensuring that market power is not used to prevent competitors from entering or competing effectively.

Competition Law Sits at the Intersection of Technology and Economics

Kaur described competition law as an economic law operating at the intersection of law, economics, public policy, corporate governance and technology.

The CCI's responsibilities broadly cover three areas: antitrust enforcement, regulation of mergers and combinations, and competition advocacy.

As AI becomes embedded in products, platforms and business processes, these areas are likely to become increasingly interconnected.

For instance, AI-powered companies could gain substantial advantages through access to data, computing resources and distribution networks. This could raise new questions around market access, mergers, vertical integration and control over critical digital infrastructure.

Balancing Regulation With Innovation

Kaur stressed that the CCI must keep pace with rapid technological change without allowing regulation to hinder legitimate innovation or business growth.

She said the regulator sees itself as part of India's broader growth story and considers facilitating business growth an important part of its role. At the same time, maintaining independent and competitive markets remains essential for sustainable economic development.

The challenge will be particularly significant in AI, where technological capabilities are evolving faster than traditional regulatory frameworks.

Prevention Better Than Cure

The CCI chairperson also emphasised the importance of competition compliance among businesses.

She said companies should build awareness of competition-law requirements before problems arise, reflecting the principle that prevention is better than cure.

For technology companies deploying AI systems, this could mean assessing the competition implications of automated pricing, recommendation algorithms, data-sharing arrangements and AI agents before deploying them at scale.

India's AI Economy Faces a New Regulatory Challenge

India is rapidly expanding its AI ecosystem, with startups and established companies adopting AI across sectors ranging from financial services and healthcare to logistics, education and retail.

The technology promises significant productivity and efficiency gains, but its increasing autonomy could also introduce new forms of market behaviour that regulators have not traditionally had to address.

The CCI's focus on agentic AI signals that competition authorities are beginning to look beyond conventional software and algorithms towards systems capable of making decisions and taking actions autonomously.

As AI adoption accelerates, the regulator's challenge will be to prevent anti-competitive conduct while ensuring that companies can continue to innovate and scale.

For India's digital economy, the emerging balance between AI innovation, market competition and regulatory oversight could become one of the most important policy questions of the coming years.