Google has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)'s March ruling on the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) antitrust order against the company for misusing its dominant position in relation to Play Store policies.
“We have filed an appeal against the NCLAT's recent decision regarding the CCI’s order. We remain committed to supporting the growth of the Indian app ecosystem for both developers and users,” a company spokesperson told Moneycontrol.
In March, NCLAT had partially upheld key aspects of the CCI's order while reducing Google's penalty from Rs 936.44 crore to Rs 216.69 crore.
CCI had initially fined Google Rs 936.44 crore in October 2022 for abusing its dominant position with regard to its Play Store policies, in addition to issuing a cease-and-desist order. The antitrust watchdog also issued a series of measures to modify the company's app payment policies.
This move came about two years after CCI ordered an investigation into the mandatory use of Google Play Store's payment system for paid apps and in-app purchases in November 2020.
In its March 2025 ruling, NCLAT upheld CCI's finding that Google imposed unfair and discriminatory conditions on app developers by mandating the use of Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for paid app sales and in-app purchases.
It also concurred with the CCI's conclusion that Google used its dominance over the Android and Play Store ecosystems to promote its own payment app - Google Pay - over rival UPI-based digital payment apps.
The tribunal further upheld CCI's directives such as allowing app developers to use any third-party billing or payment processing service for app sales or in-app purchases.
The tech giant cannot restrict app developers from communicating with their users or direct them outside the Google Play ecosystem to promote their apps and offerings. It also cannot discriminate against other apps facilitating UPI payments in India in favour of its own UPI app or prevent users from accessing or using features and services offered by app developers within their apps.
NCLAT however overturned other aspects, stating that Google did not deny market access to rival payment processors and aggregators, since GPBS represents less than 1 percent of the broader digital payment ecosystem in India.
The tribunal also rejected CCI's claim that Google engaged in discriminatory pricing by allowing its own apps, such as YouTube, to avoid service fees while charging other apps 15-30 percent. It noted that since YouTube is Google's own app, there was no 'sale of goods or services' involved.
In May, NCLAT amended its order to reinstate two key directions - using Play Billing data to further its competitive advantage, and providing a clear and transparent data-sharing policy. The tribunal noted that while these directions had been upheld in the body of the judgment, it inadvertently issued directions to overturn them in the operative part of the order.
Google's appeal was registered on July 21, and the Supreme Court is expected to hear the matter soon. Legal news publication Bar and Bench was the first to report this development.
Google was also fined Rs 1,337.76 crore for abusing its dominant position in the Android Mobile device ecosystem in October 2022. The firm is said to have paid the entire penalty amount after NCLAT upheld the fine in March 2023. In April, CCI also approved Google's settlement proposal in the Android TV antitrust case, under which the company is expected to pay Rs 20.24 crore.
With this, Google became the first company to use the settlement scheme introduced under the country’s competition law in April 2023 and officially notified in March 2024.
That said, the tech giant continues to face a series of antitrust probes by the CCI for alleged abuse of dominance in its other businesses such as news aggregation, and more recently, the firm's policies regarding the real-money gaming segment.
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