Google Has A Week To Comply With CCI’s Directions, Says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday declined to grant interim stay to Google against the directions of the Competition Commission of India. The apex court sent the matter to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal for consideration.

“An expression of opinion by this court on the merits of the case will affect the proceedings which are pending before the NCLAT. While the court is not inclined to interfere with the interim order of the NCLAT, we would request the tribunal to dispose of the appeal by March 31, 2023,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said.

The bench directed that parties to move the NCLAT with a copy of the Supreme Court's order within three working days.

In October last year, the Competition Commission of India had found Google guilty of abusing its dominance in the Android mobile device ecosystem, and online search market. The regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs 1,377 crore on the global tech giant, and directed it to cease and desist from indulging in anti-competitive behaviour. To that end, it passed the following directions:

• Original equipment manufacturers or OEMs can choose from Google's proprietary applications to be pre-installed. They should not be forced to pre-install a bouquet of applications, and can decide the placement of pre-installed apps on their smart devices.

• Licensing of Play Store shall not be linked with the requirement of pre-installing Google search services, Chrome browser, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail or any other application of Google.

• Google shall not deny access to its Play Services APIs to disadvantage OEMs, app developers and its existing or potential competitors.

• It cannot offer any monetary, other incentives to OEMs for ensuring exclusivity for its search services.

• Google shall not impose anti-fragmentation obligations on OEMs.

According to the Supreme Court's order on Thursday, Google has a week to comply with these directions.