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Informist, Friday, May 15, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Competition Commission of India Friday assured the Delhi High Court that it will not pass any final order against Apple Inc. over allegations of anti-competitive conduct in the functioning of the App Store till Jul. 15, when the court will next hear the case. A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia recorded the competition regulator's statement and disposed of Apple's plea asking the antitrust body to not take any coercive steps in the case.

 

Apple argued that the competition regulator was overstepping its authority by pushing ahead with a final hearing even as key legal challenges remain pending before the Delhi High Court. The competition regulator has been demanding detailed financial disclosures from Apple since 2024 for calculating potential penalties, after concluding that the company may have abused its dominant position in the App Store market. 

 

However, Apple has resisted sharing the data and said it has already challenged the legal framework used to determine such penalties in the high court. Last month, the competition regulator had issued an ultimatum directing Apple to submit the required financial details and said the matter will move towards a final hearing. Fearing an adverse action, Apple sought an urgent hearing before the court.

 

Last year, Apple had filed the plea against amendments to the Competition Act, 2002 that allowed the antitrust regulator to penalise companies on the basis of their global turnover. Apple Inc. has told the high court that it could be fined $38 billion if the recent amendments to the 2002 Act stand. 

 

The Competition Commission of India said there was a shortfall in law and the object of these amendments was that the global turnover concept has been considered in circumstances in which a company does not have a base in India. "We are following the relevant turnover concept, but the global turnover concept is for a very different reason where you don't have a presence in India," said the competition regulator. It said it did not ask Apple to give the global turnover, but instead sought the India turnover.  

 

In March, the competition regulator had asked Apple to submit its audited financial statements from financial year 2021-22 (Apr-Mar) to FY24. Apple said the regulator had, in a case involving another entity, imposed a penalty on it retrospectively on the basis of its global turnover. Any such retrospective imposition of penalty on Apple in terms of the recent amendments would be "manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and grossly disproportionate", rendering the same "ultra-vires the provisions of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India", it said. Apple's maximum penalty exposure at the rate of 10% of its average global turnover derived from all its products and services globally for the period from FY22 to FY24 could be about $38 billion, the American multinational technology company said.  End

 

US$1 = INR 95.93

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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