Interface between antitrust law and intellectual property in the payment systems market in India

Abstract

The digital payments sector, especially after demonetisation, has seen an exponential spurt in growth. However, most of the growth has been witnessed in the mobile wallet segment of the digital payments market. The issue however, is whether these mobile wallet companies can sustain this quantum of growth in the face of innovative digital payment instruments that have been unveiled by banks in India. This chapter seeks to examine whether mobile wallet companies can successfully compete with banks when they are denied access to critical interoperability infrastructure that is currently under the proprietorship of banks. While examining this, various antitrust issues will be looked into, but, more substantively, this chapter will delve into whether mobile wallet companies can resort to the invocation of the Essential Facilities Doctrine in trying to secure access to such interoperability infrastructure and how this interacts with the intellectual property rights of the banks.