Mapping the Legal and Regulatory Frameworks of the Ad-Tech Ecosystem in India
The main purpose of regulations in any sector is essentially twofold, one is to ensure that the interests of the general public or consumers are protected, and the other is to ensure that the sector itself flourishes and grows. Too much regulation may possibly stifle the commercial potential of any sector, whereas too little regulation runs the risk of leaving consumers vulnerable to harmful practices.
In this paper, we try to map the legal and regulatory framework dealing with Advertising Technology (Adtech) in India as well as a few other leading jurisdictions. Our analysis is divided into three main parts, the first being general consumer regulations, which apply to all advertising irrespective of the media – to ensure that advertisements are not false or misleading and do not violate any laws of the country. This part also covers the consumer laws which are specific to malpractices in the technology sector such as Dark Patterns, Influencer based advertising, etc.
The second part of the paper covers data protection laws in India and how they are relevant for the Adtech industry. The Adtech industry requires and is based on the collection and processing of large amounts of data from the users. It is therefore important to discuss the data protection and consent requirements that have been laid out in the spate of recent data protection regulations, which have the potential to severely impact the Adtech industry.
The last part of the paper covers the competition angle of the Adtech industry. Like with social media intermediaries, the Adtech industry in the world is also dominated by two or three players and such a scenario always lends itself easily to anti-competitive practices. It is therefore imperative to examine the competition law framework to see whether the laws as they exist are robust enough to deal with any possible anti competitive practices that may be prevalent in the Adtech sector.
The research was reviewed by Pallavi Bedi, it can be accessed here.
Author
