- The tech giant argues that a $161 million fine for exploiting the market dominance of its Android operating system should be overturned.
Google has told a court in India that the country’s antitrust investigators copied parts of a European ruling against the U.S. firm for abusing the market dominance of its Android operating system, arguing that the decision should be overturned, legal documents show.
The Indian Competition Commission (ICC) in October fined Alphabet Inc’s Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps.
Sources told Reuters news agency in October that Google was concerned about India’s decision as the ordered remedies were seen as more radical than the European Commission’s landmark 2018 ruling to impose illegal restrictions on Android mobile device makers. Google has challenged a record fine of 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in that case.
In its filing with an Indian appeals court, Google argues that the ICC’s investigative unit “copied and pasted extensively from a European Commission decision, deploying evidence from Europe that was not examined in India.”
“There are more than 50 cases of copypasting,” in some cases “word for word,” and the watchdog wrongly dismissed the problem, Google said in its filing, which is not public but has been reviewed by Reuters.
“The Commission failed to conduct an impartial, balanced, and legally sound investigation… Google’s mobile app distribution practices are pro-competitive and not unfair/exclusionary.”
Spokesmen for the ICC and the European Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google said in a statement that it decided to appeal the CCI’s decision as it believes it “presents a major setback for our Indian users and businesses.” He did not comment on the copy-and-paste allegations in his presentation.
Google has asked the court to overturn the CCI’s order, and the case will be heard on Wednesday.
India’s competition ruling came as Google faces increased antitrust scrutiny around the world. Google licenses its Android system to smartphone makers, but critics say it imposes anti-competitive restrictions.
The US firm says Android has created more options for everyone and such agreements help keep the operating system free. In Europe, 75 percent of the 550 million smartphones run on Android, compared with 97 percent of the 600 million devices in India, Counterpoint Research estimates.
The ICC ruled in October that Google’s license to its Play Store “will not be tied to the requirement to pre-install” Google’s search services, Chrome browser, YouTube, or any other Google app.
In its appeal, Google alleges that the ICC only found antitrust violations related to Google’s search app, Chrome browser, and YouTube, but its order “extends beyond” that.
Separately, Google has also appealed against another Indian antitrust decision in which it was fined $113 million for restricting the use of third-party billing or payment processing services in India. The appeal has not yet been heard.
Source: REUTERS
