Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered that Google's appeal against the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) order imposing a fine for abuse of its dominant position in the Android market, shall be heard on October 10 for final disposal.

When the matter was taken up by a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra, the court stated, "We need more time to prepare to hear the matter..". 

Hearing this, Senior Advocate Harish Salve suggested that the case may be taken up in September or October for final hearing.

Agreeing to this, CJI issued notice on the appeals and ordered thus, " Counsel appearing on behalf of the contesting parties shall file brief notes of submissions by 3 October 2023, which shall be exchanged in advance. Counsel shall also exchange the issues which they propose to address before this Court. The parties shall prepare soft copies of a convenience compilation duly indexed. For the said purpose, Mr Samar Bansal, counsel assisting Mr N Venkataraman, Additional Solicitor General and Mr Toshit Shandliya, counsel assisting Mr Harish N Salve, senior counsel, shall be nodal counsel who shall prepare the soft copies."

In October last year, the CCI had imposed a fine of Rs. 1337.76 crores on Google for abusing its dominant position in the Android Mobile Ecosystem Market. The commission also issued a cease-and-desist order against and has asked Google to “modify its conduct” within the prescribed timeline.

The commission rejected the arguments of Google that competitive constraints were faced by Google from Apple and stated that,

“Apple’s business is primarily based on a vertically integrated smart device ecosystem which focuses on sale of high-end smart devices with state of the art software components. Whereas Google’s business was found to be driven by the ultimate intent of increasing users on its platforms so that they interact with its revenue earning service i.e., online search which directly affects sale of online advertising services by Google.”

Google had in January 2023 filed an appeal before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), challenging the CCI's order. Google LLC and Google India Private Limited challenged the CCI's order in which CCI had found that Google abused its dominant position and violated Section 4(2)(a)(i), 4(2)(b)(ii), 4(2)(c), 4(2)(d), and 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act, 2002. The CCI had also told Google to stop engaging in anti-competitive practices that were found to violate Section 4 of the Competition Act, of 2002.

The NCLAT upheld the fine that was imposed on Google, but a bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan (Chairperson) and Dr Alok Srivastava (Technical Member) set aside four directions issued in paragraphs 617.3, 617.9, 617.10, and 617.7 by the CCI.

Background Facts

In 2005, Google purchased Android, a smartphone operating system (OS). Google's Android was introduced as an open-source licensable smartphone operating system in 2008.

Google inked a Mobile Applications Distribution Agreement (MADA) with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in 2009-10, under which the OEMs received a suite of Google's applications. In addition, Google signed Revenue Sharing Agreements (RSA) with OEMs. 

The OEMs use this Operating System & Google's apps on their smartphones.

The consumers of Android-based smartphones filed a complaint against Google LLC and Google India under Section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Ac, 2002, alleging abuse of the dominant position by Google in the mobile Operating System markets.

Case Title: GOOGLE LLC & ANR. vs. COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA & ORS.