SC pushes hearing of Google's appeal against CCI's Rs 1,338 cr penalty to Jan 2024

In October 2022, the CCI, based on the investigation report and other documents filed by both sides, concluded that Google was abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem.

The Supreme Court, on October 9, pushed the hearing of Google's appeal against the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upholding Rs 1,338 crore penalty by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for anti-trust violations to January 2024.

The hearing was to commence on October 11 as per the SC's earlier order, but it was postponed owing to constitution bench hearings.

Senior advocate Harish Salve and Additional Solicitor General Venkatraman appearing for Google and CCI sought for a date for listing as the case is unlikely to be taken up for hearing on October 10. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud orally indicated that the case will be listed in the last week of January wherein his schedule for the day will be kept free.

In March 2023, the NCLAT partially upheld the CCI order on the abuse of Android dominance order against Google. The tribunal upheld the penalty of Rs 1,338 crore imposed by the CCI.

Also Read | NCLAT to hear Google's appeal against CCI's Rs 936 crore penalty from November 28

The anti-trust appellate tribunal held that the CCI's order does not suffer from any confirmation bias. Furthermore, the NCLAT held that Google asking the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to pre-install the entire Google Suite of 11 applications amounts to imposition of unfair conditions.

The NCLAT, however, set aside four key directions issued to Google by the CCI:

1. Google was fair in sending warnings (sideloading) to users when they downloaded 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.

In October 2022, the CCI, based on the investigation report and other documents filed by both sides, concluded that Google was abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem. It asked Google to cease and desist from its practices and pay a penalty of Rs 1,338 crore.