The development of the digital economy market and the expansion of the activities of the platforms have caused the issue of monopoly to become one of the issues of emerging markets in digital economy businesses. In Iran, Snap and Tapsi, Fidibo and Taqcheh, Didar and Sepidar, in the past Chilliveri and Snapfood, from There are known cases in this area.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, over the past few years, the Competition Council has tried to finish cases related to competition and creating monopoly in various sectors of the digital economy, but the prolongation of the review process by the Competition Council is one of the problems that businesses face.
Sepehr Dadjoee Tavakoli, the spokesperson of the Competition Council, says about the long time of issuing a vote in the Competition Council: Basically, the issuance of a vote is not only in the Competition Council and not only in Iran, which has a long process in all legal claims, because the issuance of a vote must be done with an all-round view and with Justice and fairness should be observed so that no one’s rights are lost.
Now, in addition to this importance, the work of the Competition Council has its own complexities. On the one hand, the economic dimensions and on the other hand, acting as a council and reaching a consensus make this process even more complicated.
Regarding how much having a lawyer can be a facilitator in this process, Tavakoli says: We have examined cases where companies and individuals voted without a lawyer and only with sufficient evidence. I emphasize that a lawyer is not needed in the competition council process, and if He can defend his legal positions with good arguments and defenses, he does not need a lawyer.
The spokesperson of the Competition Council also says in the context of requiring the Competition Council to pay special attention to businesses in the field of digital economy: a digital economy working group has been formed in the Competition Council and we pay special attention to businesses in this area and fully understand their urgency and importance.
Regarding the new and complex tricks of monopolists, Tavakoli also says: Although they try new ways every day, our opinion interpretation is based on the opinions of experts who have enough information in this field. In addition, there is a section on the website of the Competition Council called Complaint Registration where people can send us their reports and complaints through this system.
I want large and small companies to pay attention to these issues themselves and use legal and media facilities to prevent monopolies and anti-competitive practices. Of course, the media should monitor these issues in different markets and participate more in the monitoring process.
Legal Deputy Tapsi: The Competition Council has changed its priorities
But Negin Ansari, legal deputy of Tapsi, believes that the priorities of the competition council have changed for some time and instead of looking at the competitive problems between businesses, it has entered into regulations.
She says: “Unfortunately, instead of focusing on its inherent role to deal with competition law claims, the Competition Council has moved towards regulations for some time and has added to the huge number of regulatory bodies in the country, and every day we see the issuance of new instructions from this council.”
She continues: Competition law claims are generally less known in our country in the field of startups and digital economy businesses, and they are more complex due to their interdisciplinary nature and, in other words, the need to submit these complaints to economic-legal analysis. Because of this, these lawsuits are less welcomed by business owners.
Ansari points to the important issue of “businesses not being familiar with the broad powers of the Competition Council” to discover and deal with anti-competitive practices and says:
some companies that face monopolistic competitors, not only do not know that there is an institution called the Competition Council, but They don’t know about the broad powers of this council to handle complaints, for example, some businesses don’t know that with the decision of the judge of the council, experts of the center can inspect the companies that are the party to the complaint, inquire about the related institutions, and thus many anti-competitive procedures that monopolists use tricks They all do new things in the competition council and can be followed up and checked.
Protest is a sign of corporate maturity
She continues: But anyway, we at Tapsi believe that we should not remain silent in the face of anti-competitive issues. Many times since 2016, we have raised our problems with SNAP in the Competition Council, sometimes we have succeeded and sometimes we have not succeeded.
But this legal tool exists and my advice to all businesses is not to remain silent in the face of anti-competitive behavior. Unfortunately, there is a point of view in our country that suing to enforce labor rights is futile, but companies should know that this behavior is a sign of the maturity of an ecosystem and its actors, as this practice is done all over the world.
Regarding the length of the proceedings in the Competition Council, Ansari says: on the one hand, the Competition Council has a few experts who are not responsive to the needs, and on the other hand, handling the competition complaints of companies is not a priority of the Council, and for this reason, handling Complaints generally take time.
Regarding the impact of the Competition Council’s votes, Ansari says: The punishments provided in the law are not a deterrent for anti-competitive practices. In developed countries, these crimes are so deterrent that instead of monopolistic victim companies being afraid of the new tricks of bigger competitors in monopolization, these big companies are the ones who know that they will face serious crimes if they engage in anti-competitive behavior, and therefore prefer a behavior Take the market fairly.
CEO meeting: raise anti-competitive behavior with the media
Hamid Mahmoudzadeh, the CEO of Didar, who has now reached an understanding with Sepidar, says: Our experience with Sepidar, one of the companies under the system partners, was such that we first tried to solve the problem through dialogue and rid this company of anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior. We have an open request. When we did not reach the result, we took our complaint to the competition council and raised it with the media, but fortunately, we have reached our desired result again with bilateral negotiations and follow-up.
Mahmoudzadeh points out the role of the media in such issues and says: I advise small and large companies that are involved with monopolistic competitors to use different platforms and media to express their problems, some businesses are not even aware of the Competition Council and its duties. They are not, if we can prevent unfair competition by following up and being aware of our rights.
Vindad CEO: Ignorance of legal laws is the main problem
Mohammad Hossein Amiri, CEO of Vindad, who has been with Didar and Sepidar during the legal case, also confirms Mahmoudzadeh’s words and continues: In general, many entrepreneurs do not have enough knowledge about legal issues and because the nature of the legal industry is complex. Companies consider the costs of the legal team and hiring a lawyer to be heavy, and this is the Achilles’ heel of major losses for companies.
According to him, although our laws have not been updated in many places, I still believe that the problem is not only the law, the problem comes from the ignorance of businesses about legal laws and not knowing their rights. Obviously, monopolistic businesses use new methods and tricks every day to interpret the law in their favor or to circumvent the law, but there are still many ways to prove anti-competitive behavior.
The decision of the Competition Council is absolutely necessary and if it is accompanied by the media coverage and follow-up of the news, it can be very effective.
Know the types of anti-competitive behavior
Mohammad Mahdi Jafarian, CEO of the Center for Development and Competition Studies, says: Our duty at the Center for Development and Competition Studies is to help companies in the field of competitive lawsuits. Because many companies in the digital field do not have enough knowledge of competition laws and laws, or because a competitive lawsuit has its own complexities, legal analysis, economic analysis, and econometrics must be done along with it, traditional lawyers are well aware of the challenges in this field.
One of the important points in this discussion is the awareness of the management and legal teams of the companies regarding anti-competitive procedures and the possibilities and access of the competition council. The decision of this body is deterrent, because the judge signs it and it is given considerable powers by law; For this reason, the Competition Council has many possibilities to put pressure on monopolistic companies.
Jafarian also mentions the importance of the bill in the Competition Council and says: companies must collect credible evidence and the more they can document this process, the more successful they will be. Also, the stronger this bill is in terms of legal arguments and economic proofs, the higher the probability of success and the shorter the time for handling the case.
This important point has also happened in recent months that the Competition Council has formed a special working group for the field of digital economy in order to speed up the processing of claims in this field.
He continues: It is true that monopolistic behaviors are becoming more complex every day, but there are more than thirty cases in the law, and many of these new behaviors are included in these headings, which companies can take their complaints to the Competition Council.
He also discusses the role of culture in this regard and explains: Companies must be aware of their rights and consider knowing anti-competitive examples an important part of their duties. On the other hand, the media must accompany companies in condemning monopolies. Provide sufficient information.
Caspian Media Dandelion Board of Directors: We are facing “Snapphobia” syndrome
Alireza Khodabakhsh, co-founder of Ghasedak Media Caspian, who has been working with the start-up Dandelion Food in the field of online food ordering for several years, says: “We followed negotiations with several lawyers, but not only Its costs are heavy for us and many small and medium-sized businesses, but there are other reasons for not complaining.
He continues: We got the vote of the competition council, although we are not hopeful for this part either, because Snap managers are already saying that they are not looking for monopoly, but their performance shows something else and that Snappfood is always coming up with new tricks. It attracts restaurants.
For example, in the past, Snappfood used to mention monopolistic cases by fining restaurants and other trade unions in the contract with them, but now, without leaving any written documents, it continues its work through telephone negotiations with restaurants.
He says: Another issue is that a large number of restaurants are afraid of Snap and have actually suffered from “Snapphobia syndrome”. This means that the monopoly has increased the power of Snappfood so much that if we vote, restaurants are not willing to cooperate with new players for fear of losing the Snappfood market, and we have enough financial and intellectual power for the tricks that change in Snap every day.
We don’t have can. If these behaviors are clear examples of anti-competitive behaviors and the Competition Council should deal with these issues with a report like the Penalty Organization, instead of us getting involved in heavy expenses to prove our problems.
Hassin Holding Public Relations Manager: Do not work with monopolists
Siavash Goodarzi, the public relations manager of Hassin Holding, whose niche is one of the products of this company, also says about monopolization in the online book market: the existence of exclusive contracts in the digital book market has caused problems in the development and competition of this market since its inception.
In fact, the formation of this market was accompanied by the entry of some well-known people from the traditional book market into the digital space. The familiarity of these people with some well-known publishers who have significant turnover in the book market made those publishers accept contracts according to which they could not cooperate with other platforms for up to five years.
These issues made our work in the niche to provide content, user acquisition and marketing more complicated, and if there were no monopoly in the market, less hidden and obvious costs would be imposed on the niche and other platforms.
About why many companies remain silent in the face of monopolistic behavior and do not take their complaint to the Competition Council, Goodarzi says: In the past years, the long and erosion of the process and the concern that the complaint will be ineffective, are probably important reasons why companies are more concerned about these claimants have been discouraged.
We registered our complaint in the National Competition Center about two and a half years ago, and recently we were able to get the preliminary decision of the council in favor of the plaintiffs. Fortunately, during this period, the niche was able to grow well, but not with the exorbitant costs that could be imposed on the niche.
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