NCLAT To Hear Google’s Plea Against CCI’s INR 936 Cr Fine On November 28

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) will start hearing Google’s appeal against the Competition Commision Of India’s (CCI’s) order imposing a fine of INR 936.4 Cr on the tech giant for abusing its dominant position through its Play Store policies. 

Earlier this year, the NCLAT declined to grant interim relief to Google, which was seeking a stay on the INR 936.44 Cr penalty. Following this, Google moved the Supreme Court but withdrew the case later.

The latest development comes almost 11 months after the antitrust watchdog slapped the INR 936.4 Cr fine on Google for its in-app payments policy on Play Store. The CCI directed the tech giant to “not restrict app developers from using any third party billing/payment processing services”.

The following are the key findings from the CCI’s orders: 

• By making Google’s in-house payment and billing system mandatory for paid apps and in-app purchases, the tech giant imposed unfair conditions on app developers
• Google did not mandate the use of its payment service for its own applications, such as YouTube. This amounted to imposition of discriminatory conditions as YouTube is not paying the service fee as being imposed on other apps listed on the Play Store
• Mandatory imposition of Google’s in-house billing system disturbs innovation incentives and the ability of both the payment processors as well as app developers to undertake technical development and innovation
• Google limited technical development in the market for in-app payment processing services
• The compulsory usage of Google’s payment system also results in the denial of market access for payment aggregators as well as app developers
• Google violated competition norms by deploying different methodologies to integrate its own UPI app with the Play Store results and excluding other UPI 

The antitrust watchdog sided with app developers in its ruling who had been voicing their concerns against the 15%-30% commission charged by Google from developers and companies on Play Store and directed the tech giant to not restrict app developers from using any third-party billing and payment processing systems.

Following this, Google unveiled a new commission structure, which offered a rebate of 4%, effectively setting the stage for 11-26% commission rates. 

Besides facing the INR 936.4 Cr fine, the California-headquartered tech giant was also slapped with a fine of INR 1,337.6 Cr by the CCI around the same time last year for its anti-competitive practices in the Android devices market.

In this case, the tech giant filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the NCLAT ruling that upheld the penalty. The Supreme Court hearing will begin on October 10, 2023.