Google vs CCI: SC declines to stay order; extends time to comply by one week

In October, the CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its position in various markets in relation to Android mobiles

The Supreme Court on January 19 declined to stay Google's appeal against the  Competition Commission of India (CCI)'s order of slapping Rs 1,338 crore penalty on the company for exploiting its dominant position in the Indian market for Android.

In its hearing, the apex court also extended tech giant's time to comply with the CCI order by one week. It also asked National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to dispose the case by March 31.

The Supreme Court noted that at the present stage, they are not evaluation the case on merits, as any expression of opinion would affect the proceedings going forward. The court also observed that the findings of CCI cannot be held at the interim order stage to be suffering from manifest error.

For the above reasons, SC held that they are not inclined to interfere with NCLAT’s January 4 order declining a stay.

On January 18, the apex court bench, which was made up of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices P S Narasimha and Krishna Murari, initially considered returning the case to the NCLAT to have the interim order reviewed. However, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Venkatraman argued that the case must be remanded to the Supreme Court in appeal.

The losing side before the NCLAT would likely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court because the matter is significant to the nation and is being keenly watched, the ASG told the court.

The Bench stated on January 16 that Google generated a "contrived urgency" in its request for a stay by making an appeal against the CCI's order in the Android dispute at the last minute before the NCLAT.

N. Venkatraman, Additional Solicitor General of India representing CCI, said at the hearing before the SC that Google only filed an appeal against the CCI judgement with the NCLAT in the month of December—one day before the statute of limitations was set to expire. Moreover, he said that Google discriminates against EU and Indian customers despite having already complied with similar instructions from the EC in 2018.

CCI had in October last year slapped a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google in connection with Android domination, which powers 97 percent of smartphones in India, a key growth region for the US giant. In the October ruling, CCI had also ordered the internet major to cease and desist from various unfair business practices.

On January 4, the NCLAT accepted Google's appeal against the CCI order but rejected its request for a temporary remedy. Along with a Rs 1338 crore fine, the CCI judgement from October 2022 also ordered the IT giant to stop using unfair commercial practises. Additionally, Google was asked by the competition watchdog to modify its conduct within a deadline.

The order mandated Google not to push Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of smart devices to pre-install its own apps or prevent users from uninstalling such apps. Additionally, in order to maintain the exclusivity of its search services, the US-based company was urged to refrain from providing OEMs with any incentives.

On the other hand, the search engine giant had claimed that parts of the CCI order were plagiarised from Competition proceedings in European Union and that the order is 'extraordinary' and suffers from 'errors'.

Further, the Alphabet had argued that Android's open system makes phones more affordable; Android enables more than 15,000 models across 1,100 OEMs.