Google Has Created A Digital Data Hegemony: CCI To NCLAT

Taking potshots at Google, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Thursday (March 16) said that the US-based tech major has created a digital data hegemony. 

Arguing for the competition watchdog, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) N Venkataraman made the comments while concluding his remarks before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in the Google antitrust ruling case. 

Terming Google’s strategy as ‘moat and castle’-based, ASG Venkatraman said that the tech major used its money-minting search engine as the ‘castle’ while forcing the rest of the apps to play the defensive role of a moat. As a result, he added, the big market players became bigger and bigger while new entrants struggled to gain critical user mass and user data. 

The CCI argued that both data capture and data deployment mechanisms were getting exploited and monetised by the tech major as advertisement revenues, adding that Google’s hegemony reduced both choice and competition.

Calling for a market with fair and open competition, ASG Venkatraman was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that a market with a greater degree of freedom for all players would be more in tune with the principles of free competition. This, he said, would be in contrast with Google’s current ‘walled garden’ approach.

He also said that the remedies sought by the competition watchdog would ‘go a long way’ in ensuring greater freedom for all market players. 

Lashing out at the big tech juggernaut, the ASG added that Google flouted multiple norms – be it regarding mandatory pre-installation of apps or bundling of core apps. This, he said, resulted in the imposition of unfair conditions and supplementary obligations. 

Venkatraman also argued that the bundling of apps allowed Google to leverage its dominance in one market to protect its interests in other relevant markets. 

The commission’s arguments also made note of digital public goods systems such as GST and UPI, which include and process the personal financial data of millions of Indians. While noting that these public goods infrastructures were run for the public good, CCI contended that many private entities were ‘resourcefully calibrating’ this data flow for the sole benefit of themselves. 

The competition law is one important pillar in the democratisation of data and in achieving the objective of the greatest good for the greatest number, ASG Venkatraman said. 

With this, the CCI’s counsel concluded his remarks in the contentious trial, which has grabbed headlines across the country. The matter acquired national prominence after CCI, in its order last year, imposed two separate penalties amounting to INR 2,247 Cr on Google for its abuse of dominance in the Android devices market and Play Store policies. 

The CCI also ordered Google to undertake sweeping changes to its agreements with OEMs and Play Store operations in the country. Google did undertake some of these changes, but not before filing a case in the NCLAT, seeking to throw out the CCI ruling. However, the NCLAT eventually sided with the competition watchdog and refused to grant any interim relief. 

Afterwards, Google approached the Supreme Court, which also refused to entertain the plea and directed the NCLAT to hear the matter in depth. Since then, both sides have been presenting their case before the tribunal.