Competition Commission of India (CCI) chairperson Ravneet Kaur has reportedly warned that AI could amplify anti-competitive practices in digital markets
The CCI found that rapid AI adoption was reshaping competition dynamics and could give rise to AI-driven anti-competitive practices
Kaur said that the rapid adoption of AI is accelerating the pace of change in digital markets and creating new competition risks for regulators
Competition Commission of India (CCI) chairperson Ravneet Kaur has reportedly warned that AI could amplify anti-competitive practices in digital markets.
Flagging risks like self-preferencing, discriminatory pricing, tying and market manipulation, Kaur said that the rapid adoption of AI is accelerating the pace of change in digital markets and creating new competition risks for regulators, as per a report by PTI.
She made the comments while addressing a national training programme for law students at the India International University of Legal Education and Research (IIULER) in Goa today.
While Kaur highlighted that businesses across sectors were rapidly adopting AI tools, she mentioned that the CCI also needs to assess whether AI could enable or replicate anti-competitive practices already observed in digital markets.
“Digital markets are something we have been seeing for some time now, but there is something else which is also happening now — AI. What was going at a very fast pace in digital markets has turned like jet speed now because of AI,” she said.
One area of concern for the CCI is agentic AI, where AI systems can independently make decisions and execute actions with limited or no direct human intervention.
In its market study on AI and competition, the CCI found that rapid AI adoption was reshaping competition dynamics and could give rise to AI-driven anti-competitive practices.
With the report, which was released back in October 2025, the regulator had urged enterprises to conduct self-audits of their AI systems for competition compliance and adopt greater transparency to identify potential risks and prevent market distortions.
The proposed audits aim to make AI systems more explainable and auditable, particularly for companies with significant market power or wide consumer reach. In this, companies would need to assess whether their AI systems could facilitate anti-competitive conduct, including algorithmic collusion, discriminatory practices or exclusionary behaviour.
The CCI also called for greater transparency and reduced information asymmetry around AI systems, while clarifying that this does not mean disclosure of proprietary algorithms or commercially sensitive information. The regulator has erstwhile shared plans for focused workshops on AI and competition compliance to help businesses understand how competition law applies to AI and the safeguards needed to mitigate compliance risks.
For enterprises, the open-source AI debate is also moving beyond the question of cost. As AI becomes embedded in critical workflows, businesses are increasingly concerned about what happens if access to a proprietary model is disrupted, pricing changes or a provider alters its terms. PayU CTO Narendra Babu said this has shifted enterprise conversations around open-source models from cost management to risk management.
Despite the emerging risks, Kaur reportedly confirmed that the CCI would not rush to regulate every new technology or market development.
Source: Inc42
