New Delhi: Google has made a request to India’s Supreme Court to have antitrust orders against it for its alleged misuse of the Android market dismissed. In one of its important markets, Google is still fighting the country’s competition authority in court.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) charged Google with abusing its monopoly in the Indian smartphone market in October. Around 600 million mindsets in the country use the Android mobile operating system thus the CCI ordered Google to lift a number of restrictions imposed on device makers, notably with regard to pre-installed apps. Google also received a $163 million fine, which it swiftly paid.
In March, A court in India partially helped Alphabet, the parent firm of Google, by reversing four of the 10 first CCI directions. The tribunal overturned some orders requiring Google to change its business model while admitting the CCI’s conclusions regarding Google’s anti-competitive behaviour as accurate.
According to a Reuters source familiar with the matter, Google seeks the Supreme Court’s intervention to overturn the remaining directives. Additionally, in its recent filing on Monday, Google argues that it has not abused its market position and should not be subjected to any penalties, as per the same source.
In a statement, Google acknowledged the submission and expressed its eagerness to argue its position and show users and developers the advantages of Android.
According to the Indian tribunal’s decision, the government must provide evidence of the harm caused by anti-competitive action. However, it did not comply with this criterion for a number of the CCI’s Android-related directives. The present challenge from Google seeks to explain the justification for their opposition.
On the other hand, according to reports, the CCI has petitioned the supreme court to overturn the tribunal’s ruling and reinstate the orders that were dismissed.
Google has expressed serious concerns about the Indian tribunal’s judgement on Android because the guidelines were deemed to be of a wider scope than those imposed by the European Commission in its historic decision against the operating system in 2018. It has introduced significant Android updates in India in reponse to teh orders. For instance, in order to address some of the issues raised by the CCI, the business now permits device manufacturers to licence specific apps for pre-installation.
