Google’s abuse of dominant position: CCI moves SC against NCLAT order

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has filed an appeal in Supreme Court against the judgment of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in a case pertaining to Google's abuse of its dominant position and imposition of Rs 1,338 crore penalty on the US tech giant by the CCI.

According to the Supreme Court's website, the appeal was filed on June 5, the case is yet to be numbered as the registry has raised some technical defects in the plea.

The NCLAT's judgment from March 2023, partially upheld CCI's order against tech giant Google holding that it had abused its dominant position.

However, the appellate tribunal held the following aspects in Google's favour.

1. Google was fair in sending warnings (Sideloading) to users when they download applications directly from the website or from an unknown source.


2. Google need not share its proprietary Application Program Interface (API) with third parties.


3. Google was right in not permitting third-party application stores on its play stores to avoid malware


4. Google can restrict the uninstallation of Google Suite apps on Android phones

The tribunal also held that CCI should do an analysis of the effects of a discriminatory condition in an agreement or anti-competitive practices so as to meet the objective of the Competition Act. The object of the Competition Act is to prevent practices, which have adverse effects on competition.

It is speculated that the anti-trust watchdog has filed an appeal against one of the above findings of the CCI.