Google-CCI Tussle: Tech Giant Accuses Antitrust Watchdog Of Favouring Amazon

Amid its ongoing tussle with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), tech giant Google has accused the antitrust watchdog of favouring ecommerce giant Amazon. 

Citing Google’s filing with the Supreme Court, Reuters reported that the tech giant said that the CCI asked it to make changes to its business model “only to protect” Amazon, which complained about the challenges faced by it in developing a modified version of the Android system due to Google’s restrictions.

Recently, Google filed an appeal in the Supreme Court (SC) challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT’s) ruling that upheld the INR 1,338 Cr penalty slapped on it by the CCI. 

Last year, the CCI fined Google INR 1,337.7 Cr for abusing its dominant position in the Android devices market. Besides, it imposed another fine of INR 936 Cr on the tech giant for its Play Store policies. 

Commenting on the NCLAT’s ruling, Google said that the tribunal failed to look into various aspects of the CCI’s ruling, especially those pertaining to proving harm related to anti-competitive behaviour.

It must be noted that during the CCI’s investigation in the Android case, Amazon told the antitrust watchdog that Google’s restrictions hindered development of its Android fork, called Fire OS. 

Google reportedly said in its Supreme Court filing that the CCI unfairly relied on Amazon’s statement to pass the adverse decision against it.

“Globally, FireOS failed commercially due to poor user experience. In India, the Fire Phone was not even launched. Thus, the Commission called Amazon’s lack of attempt to compete in India a failure and attributed it to Google’s agreements,” Google said in the filing. 

This is not the first time when Google has made serious allegations against the CCI. The US-based company, which is at loggerheads with Indian regulators, earlier accused the CCI of copying the European Union’s order on market dominance in its ruling against the company in the Android case.

The company is also entangled in a legal dispute with Indian startups over its user choice billing system.

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