Tech major, Google on Tuesday filed its appeal in the Supreme Court, challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s March order upholding the fine of Rs 1,338 crore imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
While the NCLAT order had upheld the penalty levied, it had provided substantial relief to the tech firm by way of modifying four of the ten key clauses of the anti-trust regulator’s order.
As a result of which, Google was free to not allow hosting of third party app stores on its Play Store. It could also continue with its pre-installed apps such as Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube. Google was also free to continue to place curbs on distributing apps through sideloading and not share its proprietary Play Services APIs (Application Programme Interface) with rivals, original equipment makers (OEMs) and developers.
So, in effect, while the NCLAT order had upheld CCI’s order which found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position, it had restored the manner in which it operated its Play Store and other services which govern the Android ecosystem.
However, the NCLAT had upheld the remaining six restrictive clauses, the most important of which was that Google will allow the users, during the initial device setup, to choose their default search engine for all search entry points.
While Google’s petition was not accessible, legal experts said that it’s likely that the company has appealed against the upholding of the remaining six clauses and the penalty amount. “Logically, if four out of ten clauses are set aside, the fine amount should also be lowered, which the NCLAT did not do,” pointed out a senior lawyer.
The CCI has already appealed against the order in the SC, so the apex court will have to hear the appeals of both the parties.
The CCI had imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1,338 crore on Google in October, 2022, for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem and had issued a cease-and-desist order against the firm from indulging in anti-competitive practices. The Commission had also directed Google to modify its conduct within a defined timeline.
Google had then filed a plea with NCLAT, which had declined to give an interim stay. The company had then approached the Supreme Court, which had also declined to stay the CCI order but had directed the NCLAT to decide on Google’s appeal by March 31.