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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 24, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Google Inc. and its related companies have moved the Supreme Court against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's March order to uphold some findings of the Competition Commission of India that the companies abused their dominant position in its Play Store policy. In 2022, the competition watchdog had imposed a penalty of INR 9.36 billion against Google and its companies for abusing their dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem. 

 

In March, the appellate tribunal reduced the penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India against Google Inc. and its related companies to INR 2.17 billion and further rejected some findings of the antitrust body’s order. However, the appellate tribunal upheld the competition watchdog's order that Google making access to the Play Store, for application developers, dependent on mandatory usage of google play billing system for paid apps and in-app purchases constituted an imposition of unfair conditions on app developers. Application developers had been using different payment mechanisms with respect to their paid apps and in-app purchases and requirement of all developers to accept Google Play billing system discriminated the developers to use any other payment system, said the appellate tribunal.

The appellate tribunal agreed with the competition watchdog's view that Google was found to be leveraging its dominance in the market for licensable mobile operating system and app stores for Android operating system, to protect its position in the market for Android in-app payment processing in violation of the provisions of Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act, 2002.

  

Further, the appellate tribunal upheld the Competition Commission's directions that asked Google to allow, and not restrict app developers from using any third-party billing or payment processing services, either for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps. The appellate tribunal noted that Google should also not discriminate or otherwise take any adverse measures against such apps using third-party billing or payment processing services, in any manner. 

 

Google should not impose any anti-steering provisions on app developers and not restrict them from communicating with their users to promote their apps and offerings, in any manner, the appellate tribunal said. Google should also not restrict end users, in any manner, to access and use within apps, the features and services offered by app developers, it said. It also upheld the order by the competition watchdog asking Google to not discriminate against other apps facilitating payment through UPI in India vis-a-vis its own UPI app, in any manner.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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