Ex-ante competition rules for cloud services sees pushback from 60% stakeholders: CUTS study

A majority of stakeholders have expressed concerns about bringing cloud service providers under the ambit of the proposed Digital Competition Bill (DCB), amid reports that the Centre is looking to revisit a digital competition law with ex-ante regulations to curb the dominance of tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.Over 60 per cent of feedback on including cloud services under the DCB was negative, according to stakeholder consultations and netnographic sentiment analysis by the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International.This is mainly due to concerns about regulatory uncertainty, high compliance costs, the risk of arbitrary SSDE designations, and possible chilling effects on innovation and investment, especially for startups with thin margins, the policy research