Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University

Negotiation competition (Prelims)

TEAM CODE : NM-15

Negotiation Plan in the matter between

Bakshi & Co. (‘Kockick’)

&

Company M

-On behalf of Bakshi &Co.-

KOCKICK
Strong points
 Dominant player in the social media market and enjoys global popularity.
Kockick has managed to cross over 2 Billion downloads in a period of 4 years and has
been ruling the international market since its launch. It currently has users in over 223
countries, proving that the extent of its popularity is large.

 Highly engaged user base.

Kockick’s features such as the facial recognition system, in-video search option and it
providing users with services bespoke to them has helped it become one of the most
used apps with a highly engaged user base.

 Generates employment and a means of livelihood for creators.

The company employs lakhs of people around the world and the app has helped
people find a livelihood through its creator fund policy and provides a platform for
brands to collaborate with creators through paid partnerships and sale of merchandise.

 Approached by many interested buyers.

Due to its historical growth and high revenue generation (about $500m per annum)
other multinational corporations such as Iricle, Sellmart and GoGoa Inc. have also
come up with proposals to buy Kockick.

Weak points
 App content is subject to strict government monitoring and censorship.
Azamgarh has a content filtering, strict internet regime, so the data accessible to users
is monitored and censored heavily by the Azamgarh government.

 Susceptible to pressure by the Government to divulge sensitive data.

Headquarters of Bakshi & Co. are located in Shanghai,Azamgarh, so, Kockick has to
follow Azami government’s orders and share users’data which may even include
sensitive data. Non compliance of government orders because of international
pressure(e.g. threat to ban the app) may lead to strict action. We can conclude that the
company is caught between a rock and a hard place in this scenario.

 Poses privacy concerns for users due to invasive app access.

To provide services useful to the users, it has access to their location and other
sensitive data. The users do not have control over how their data is used, stored and
shared, which could be a potential danger to their data safety.

 Recently paid a hefty fine to NCDRC due to violation of COPPA.

The app stored children’s biometric data without parental consent and transferred
their data to their servers in Singapore. Such actions cause reputational damage and
bring negative press.

 Temporarily banned in India by the Indian Government for 45 days.

Warned by the NIA about the possibility of data breach, sensitive data of Indian users
being accessible to Azamgarh, the ease through which the Azamgarh Intelligence
 Services could snoop on Indian users without raising alarms has made the Indian
government temporarily ban the app.

Needs and Interests

 The Indian government has temporarily banned the app, in the interim, Kockick has to
sell its business in India to an All Indian Owner.
 Needs a favourable court order i.e. an injuction to prevent the app from being banned
by the Indian Government.
 Despite having users from over 223 countries Kockick is particularly interested to sell
only a portion of it’s business and not completely give up on operations in India due
to its large user base in India.

BATNA
Kockick can use either of these two alternatives depending upon the judgment of the
court:
 If the judgement is in favour of Kockick it can resume its operations in India and
continue benefitting from the revenue generated by the app being used by Indian
users. It will now be a choice and not a compulsion for Kockick to enter into
negotiations with other interested buyers such as Iricle, Sellmart and GoGoa.Inc.
to sell or share some portion of its business.

 If the judgement is against Kockick it will have no choice but to sell the app or
else it will have to close down its operations in India. Given the success of the app
in the social media market, it can approach other interested buyers such as Iricle,
Sellmart and GoGoa.Inc. for negotiations for better rates.

Objectives and Goals

 Kockick’s priority is to escape ban and continue its operations in India which is
possible in the present time by mollifying the government’s concerns about data
security and let India have control over their data to prevent engaging into more
tussles with the Indian government.

 A recurring income would be more profitable than income from selling its
business in India but since the court order is pending and if it is ultimately against
Kockick, it will look out for the best deal to churn out maximum profit from
favourable negotiations.

 In case of a favourable court order, Kockick would aim at preventing a buyout by

Company M i.e. Kockick would still hold a majority stake in the app and could
introduce other options such as profit sharing instead.