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Informist, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026

 

--CCI closes antitrust case against Google on real money gaming apps 

--CCI: Google's commitment on real money gaming apps prima facie satisfactory

--CCI: Online Gaming Act banned online real money gaming, its apps, advt 

--CCI: As no stay on Online Gaming Act, proceedings vs Google not needed

 

NEW DELHI – The Competition Commission of India Tuesday closed an antitrust case brought against Google LLC., Alphabet Inc., Google India Pvt. Ltd., and Google India Digital Services Pvt. Ltd. on charges of allowing daily fantasy sports and rummy in its pilot programme on Play Store and disallowing all other real-money gaming applications. There were also allegations of Google restricting its advertisements policy by allowing only daily fantasy sports and rummy application advertisers to host advertisements using Google Ads.

 

The antitrust watchdog noted that the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, has already banned online real-money gaming in India. Hence the relief sought by the complainant, Winzo Games Pvt. Ltd., against Google on real-money gaming applications can no longer be granted, as it would be contrary to the law. A direction requiring Google to admit all real-money gaming applications to Google Play or to permit their advertisements would run contrary to Section 5 and Section 6 of the Online Gaming Act, it said. Continuing the present inquiry would neither restore market access nor improve consumer choice or remedy an ongoing distortion or prevent recurrence of the conduct identified in the competition regulator's prima facie order, it said. No meaningful relief, therefore, survives in the present matter, it added.

 

The competition commission noted that Winzo had sought withdrawal of its complaint during the hearing in August, citing a change in law as the reason. In this regard, the commission noted that the proceedings under the Competition Act, 2002, are "inquisitorial and in rem", and Winzo is not the "dominus litis". "Having considered the matter as a whole, the commission is of the view that the cumulative market wide impact of the supervening legislation, the absence of any lawful or effective remedy, advanced stage of the commitment proceedings of a commitment offer which was prima facie satisfactory, the discontinuance of the pilot program and relevant advertisements, and the informant's request for withdrawal makes continuation of the inquiry unnecessary," it said.

 

The commission said the closure of the case against Google is based on the facts and the legal position prevailing on the date of the order. If the relevant provisions of the Online Gaming Act are stayed, struck down, repealed, or otherwise cease to operate and Google indulges in any anti-competitive conduct, the commission reserves the right to take cognisance of such conduct and exercise its powers under sections 19 and 26 of the 2002 Act, it said. It is also made clear that this order records no finding on the merits of Google's conduct, it added.

 

The Online Gaming Act has brought about a fundamental change in the legal framework governing online real money games, the regulator said. This change has a direct bearing on the concerns identified in its prima facie order wherein the investigation was directed against Google's alleged selective and discriminatory conduct, under which daily fantasy sports and rummy applications were permitted under its pilot programme and their advertisements allowed while comparable real-money games were excluded, it said. 

 

The Online Gaming Act stipulates a complete, game-neutral prohibition, so there is now no room to indulge in discretionary selection of one category of real-money games to the exclusion of others, the regulator said. In other words, there is no longer a lawful real-money gaming market on Play Store or Google Ads which can be opened to one category of game developers while being denied to another, it said. 

 

Furthermore, Google, through its commitment application, said it had closed its pilot programme and ceased accepting real-money gaming advertisements from January and placed its compliance on record, the regulator said. Therefore, the conduct that had raised prima facie concerns had ceased a few months before the Online Gaming Act came into force, it said.   

 

Winzo, a digital gaming and technology company, offered an online digital gaming platform under its trademark and brand name "WinZo". It offered over 100 games in five formats in more than 12 regional languages. Winzo said Google Play Store, an application store for the Android operating system, is where third-party app developers make their apps available to users. It said Play Store restricts hosting of gaming applications that offer real-money games in India. In 2022, Google updated its policies and commenced the pilot programme to test hosting of two types of real-money games on Play Store for one year.

 

Winzo alleged that the decision to limit the programme's scope to only two apps and disallow all other real-money games was discriminatory and arbitrary and constituted abuse by Google of its dominant position. Thereafter, the competition regulator had ordered a director-general probe against Google. Subsequently, Google filed commitment applications before the commission for mending its behaviour.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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