Android Case: Supreme Court To Hear Google, CCI Arguments From October 10

Supreme Court will begin hearing the arguments in the ongoing case between Google and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order in the Android case on October 10, 2023.

An apex court bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said on Friday (July 14) both the parties in the case should complete and exchange their pleadings or replies by October 3, 2023.

For now, Google and the CCI have nearly three months to come up with arguments. Senior advocate Harish Salve appeared on behalf of Google, while additional solicitor general N Venkataraman represented the CCI during the hearing earlier on Friday.

In its order, the NCLAT upheld the fine of INR 1,338 Cr imposed on Google by the CCI for abusing its dominance in the Android ecosystem but quashed four out of the 10 directives of CCI calling for a change in Google’s business model.

The NCLAT trashed CCI’s directive asking Google to not deny access to its Play services application programming interfaces (APIs) to disadvantage other equipment manufacturers (OEMs), app developers and existing or potential competitors. 

Further, it also quashed another CCI directive instructing Google to allow developers of application stores to distribute those stores through its Play Store.

In June, the CCI moved the apex court to challenge a part of the NCLAT order, which said the watchdog needed to carry out an ‘effect analysis’ for proving abuse of dominance under Section 4 of the Competition Act. The tribunal noted that the test to be employed in the effect analysis is whether the abusive conduct is anti-competitive or not.

On the other hand, Google also approached the country’s top court, saying the tribunal failed to look into various aspects of the CCI’s ruling, especially those pertaining to proving harm related to anti-competitive behaviour.

The tech giant is also looking to get six of the 10 directives imposed on it quashed. If it fails to do so, Google is looking at major changes in its business model. 

The Google-CCI saga is years in the making, with the competition watchdog finally imposing the largest-ever penalty when it ordered Google to pay up to INR 1,337.76 Cr. 

The tech giant has also challenged in the Supreme Court another penalty of INR 936 Cr imposed by the CCI for abuse of dominant position with respect to Play Store Policies. The apex court is yet to take any action on the matter, though Google is said to have already paid the said penalty.