NCLAT Reduces Antitrust Fine On Google Parent Alphabet To Rs 220 Crore
Google-parent Alphabet challenged the Rs 936 crore fine imposed by the Competition Commission of India in October 2022.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Friday diluted the antitrust fine on Google-parent Alphabet Inc. from Rs 936 crore to Rs 220 crore for the case is related to Google's Play Store billing.
The Competition Commission of India in October 2022 imposed a monetary penalty on the tech giant after a probe concluded that Google abused its dominance concerning its Play Store policies.
The CCI found Google guilty of abusing its dominance in the Android mobile device ecosystem and online search market. In 2018, the regulator found Google's conduct to be abusive in the online general web search and web search advertising services in India.
The investigation into Google's practices in the UPI payments market began in 2020 after the CCI found a prima facie case of anti-competitive practices by the US tech giant, which it had noted has a unique advantage compared to other UPI app developers.
In its final order, the regulator arrived at the same conclusion.
Having concluded Google's dominance in the Android market, the regulator looked at the Google Play Store, which it noted constitutes the main distribution channel for app developers in the Android mobile ecosystem.
The regulator has noted that the sale of in-app digital goods constitutes an important means for the app developers to monetise their creations/innovations. To do so, the developers are forced to configure their apps so that all purchases of digital goods go through Google’s payment system, which processes the transactions.
The company later challenged the fine in NCLAT.
