Relief to Google in Android mobile device case, petition listed against CCI order

New Delhi| Google told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it may take five-six days to hear arguments in the case related to the alleged anti-competitive activities of the technology giant in the Android mobile device case. On March 29 last year, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) gave a mixed verdict on Google’s alleged anti-competitive activities in the case. The judgment had upheld a fine of Rs 1,338 crore, but removed conditions such as permission to host third-party app stores on the Play Store.

The apex court is considering the arguments filed by Google and the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The petition challenges the decision of the Appellate Tribunal in a case related to the alleged anti-competitive activities of the technology giant in the Android mobile device case.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra has already listed these petitions for hearing on Thursday. At the beginning of the day’s proceedings, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the technology giant, referred to the petition and said the hearing of the case could take five-six days. The CJI said, “It (the petition) will maintain its position in the board (the agenda)”. Let’s see things go on…Let this matter begin. We’ll see.” Earlier in July, the Supreme Court had said that it would hear the arguments of Google and CCI in this case in the second week of September.

The bench had appointed lawyer Sameer Bansal as the nodal counsel to prepare a common digital petition with the help of lawyers from both sides for easy adjudication of the case. NCLAT, in its decision, had upheld the penalty imposed by CCI on the technology giant for taking advantage of its dominant position in Android.

NCLAT had rejected the anti-trust regulator’s order, which said Google would not ban users from removing their pre-installed apps. Both Google and CCI came to the Supreme Court against the decision of NCLAT. On July 7 last year, the apex court heard these appeals for the first time. Previously, NCLAT had upheld six of CCI’s instructions in its 189-page order, one asking Google to allow users to choose their default search engine during initial device setup, and another making it clear that OEMs cannot be forced to pre-install multiple apps.

The Appellate Tribunal had asked Google to implement the directive and deposit the amount within 30 days. It had said that “the commission’s order is upheld except in four directions” and said that Google “is thus not entitled to any relief other than cancellation of the above four directions”.

“The Appellant (Google) is permitted to deposit the amount of the fine (after adjusting the amount of 10 per cent of the fine deposited under the order dated January 4, 2023) within a period of 30 days from today”, it said.  On October 20, 2022, CCI had fined Google Rs 1,337.76 crore for anti-competitive practices regarding Android mobile devices. The regulator had also ordered the internet giant to stop and stay away from various unfair business practices.