SC To Hear Google Plea Against CCI Penalty On January 16

The Supreme Court of India will be hearing tech giant Google’s plea against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) penalty of INR 1,337.76 Cr on January 16.

The competition watchdog imposed the said penalty on the tech major for alleged abuse of its dominant position across various verticals of the Android ecosystem.

Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud took note of a request made by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Google, and said that the Supreme Court would list the plea for hearing on Monday (January 16).

Singhvi, while seeking a date of hearing, complained that extraordinary directions had been passed by CCI and the order has to be complied with by 19 January. “There is no finding of abuse of dominance,” he added.

Last month, Google approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the CCI order. The tribunal has since refused an interim stay on the order and asked Google to deposit 10% of the amount.

The tribunal also noted that the tech major took more than two months to challenge the CCI order. Since the tech giant did not show urgency in moving an appeal with the tribunal, Google could not insist on interim relief.

However, the money might be the least of the problems for Google in light of the CCI order for the INR 1,337.76 Cr penalty. Apart from the penalty, the competition watchdog has implemented certain restrictions and ordered some changes to how Google operates in India on a fundamental level. These changes include:

• Give original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) a choice of Google Mobile Suite (GMS) apps to install and choose the placement of these apps
• Licence Play Store without the requirement of installing GMS apps
• Provide access to Play Services APIs to everyone
• Stop offering monetary incentives to OEMs for the exclusivity of search services
• Stop imposing Anti-Fragmentation Agreement (AFA)/Android Compatibility Commitment (ACC) agreements on OEMs
• Allow users to uninstall pre-installed Google apps
• Allow app store developers to distribute their app stores via the Play Store
• Allow app developers to distribute apps through side loading

Google has since noted that if it is forced to implement the aforementioned orders, Android smartphones in India would become more expensive and would also be more vulnerable to security threats.

The tech major’s arguments are not totally unfounded. For once, while sideloading of apps could be perceived as a democratisation of the apps ecosystem, this would open up the ecosystem to fraudulent apps which might reduce the overall security of the whole Android ecosystem.

Google has another CCI penalty to worry about come January 19. The competition watchdog imposed an INR 936.44 Cr penalty for allegedly abusing its dominance in the Play Store market. In that case, too, the NCLAT denied any interim relief and told Google to submit 10% of the penalty.