Google on Wednesday scored a partial victory in its antitrust case against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) set aside four of the 10 directions laid down by the commission in the Android antitrust case.
The NCLAT, in its hearing today, held that the CCI’s findings of Google’s anti-competitive conduct in the case of Android mobile operating system were correct and the company will have to pay the penalty prescribed by the organisation. At the same time, the appeals court quashed four of the 10 antitrust directives imposed on Google for changing its business model.
Among the reliefs, Google will no longer be required to allow hosting of third-party app stores inside the Play Store. Furthermore, Google will not require users to allow users to remove pre-installed apps such as Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube. Furthermore, a Reuters report said that the company may continue to curb so-called “sideloading”, the practice of downloading apps without using the App Store, which the CCI had asked to stop.
The move will come as a breather for the company in January 2023 after the Supreme Court refused to suspend any antitrust directions ordered by the CCI last year. Following the Supreme Court order, Google made sweeping changes to Android in India, including allowing device makers to license individual apps for pre-installation and giving users the option to choose their default search engine. NCLAT did not interfere in it, the agency pointed out.
Google said in a blog post, “The implementation of these changes to the ecosystem will be a complex process and will require significant work on our end and in many cases significant efforts from partners, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and developers.” will be needed.” Time.
The appellate court also said that Google will have to pay a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the CCI. A two-member bench of NCLAT directed the tech giant to comply with the CCI order and deposit the amount in 30 days.
At the moment, it is not clear whether Google will again challenge the decision made by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal to quash the other CCI directions.
With agency inputs.
Google vs CCI: NCLAT sets aside 4 directions of CCI, asks Google to pay Rs 1337 crore fine in Android antitrust case, appeared first on Techlusive.
