The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has scheduled the hearing for tech giant Google’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for November 28. The CCI imposed a substantial penalty of Rs 936 crore on Google for alleged abuse of its dominant position within the Play Store ecosystem.
Contesting startups have been given a four-week window to file responses to Google’s appeal.
Earlier this year, on January 11, the NCLAT had declined to grant immediate relief to Google against the CCI’s order and scheduled the final hearing for April 2023. Although Google initially appealed to the Supreme Court against the NCLAT’s order, it later withdrew the case.
The CCI’s penalty, dated October 25, 2022, stemmed from Google’s alleged restriction of app developers from using third-party billing or payment processing services for in-app purchases on the Google Play Store. The CCI found this practice to be an unfair condition imposed on app developers and that Google had discriminated by not using its own Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for its application, YouTube.
Additionally, the CCI stated that mandating the use of GPBS harmed innovation incentives and market access for payment aggregators and app developers. Ultimately, the CCI concluded that Google’s practices leveraged its dominance in the licensable mobile OS and app store market for Android OS.
