Abuse of Dominance in Cyberspace: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The dominance of cyberspace is a burgeoning issue for commercial benefits. Undue advantage is being taken for exploitation of the consumers as well as competitors by dominating the cyberspace, sometimes by major share in market or the innovations. The courts and regulating agencies are worried much due to the growth of users from 36 million to 2.8.billion between 2000 and 2015, with average growth of 17.5%. Google has specially dominated the cyberspace and affected many of the competitors. Competition Commission of India has also found that Google was in dominant position in the relevant markets, based on its market share and presence of high entry barriers and scale advantage, which limited ability of users to switch to other online search engines. On the three counts of abuse of dominance recognized by the CCI, it imposed a penalty of USD 21 million on Google, calculated at the rate of 5% of Google’s average total revenue generated from India operations for the financial years 2013, 2014, and 2015. Even European Commission has found violations and imposed a stunning fine of $5 billion on Google. But, Google denied and argued that it never violated any norms and dominated the cyberspace, as it is all due to the creation, expanding, and innovative and research-oriented technology.