On Monday, the Supreme Court asked US tech giant Google whether it would be open to applying similar standards in India to those that exist in Europe for its Android smartphone operating system. ¥The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sued $133.7 billion for allegedly abusing Android smartphones’ dominant position in the ecosphere.
Supreme Dhanan Jaya Y Chandrachud of India (CJI) hears the tech giant’s appeal against the 4 January National Court of Appeals for Companies Law (NCLAT) order refusing to uphold the CCI order of 20 October. A bench headed by the Chief Justice said: You (Google) will be happy to put the same regime that you put in Europe. Please reflect and go home. “
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Last year, Google paid €4.125 billion to the European Union (EU) after losing an appeal in an antitrust case related to the Android operating system. The European Court of Justice has ruled that Google has imposed “illegal restrictions” on the maker of his Android smartphone and abused its “search engine dominance”.
Additional Attorney General (ASG) N Venkatraman, citing the EU decision, submitted to the court that Google cannot discriminate between users and operating systems (OS) in India, declaring this fact “pretty shocking.” Amazing data” existed. “From 20th October, we had a grace period of 90 days. The EU saw them as the upper hand and the total amount of €4 billion was paid in full. We are a third world country. Indian consumers and OS , how can we distinguish between European consumers and OSes?”
The bench, composed of Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, asked Google to provide information about the compliance of the complaining company in Europe, stating: Are you (Google) ready to introduce similar compliance in India?” The court posted the issue for hearing on Wednesday.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, along with Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appeared before Google and found NCLAT guilty of legal error by determining that it failed to demonstrate urgency using the statutory two-month period. said in court. bring the action. NCLAT declined to approve the interim suspension and directed the matter to be taken up in April, provided he deposited 10% of the total cost within three weeks.
Bench said: We also went to bars. You create such an emergency that the courts are forced to extend their time. It could have been submitted earlier. “
Singhvi told the court that the CCI’s decree was scheduled to take effect on 19 January and that further hearings in April would make its request for suspension a fait accompli. Further, regarding the EU order, Singhvi pointed out that it concerns the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA). In India, Google claimed that through MADA, it licenses high-quality apps non-exclusively and free of charge to device manufacturers and users. Google also provides promotional payments to device makers under revenue-sharing agreements for search services, from which Google primarily generates revenue, Google said in its appeal.
Google’s petition to stop the CCI order states: This poses a serious risk of harm to Indian consumers and businesses, and opens up another backdoor for foreign actors seeking to compromise the security of Android device users in India. “
The tech giant noted CCI’s direction of “allowing app store developers to distribute their app stores through the Play Store (Google’s own Android app store).” Third-party app stores have a much higher prevalence and risk of malware, according to the company. .
The Commission’s order was based on three petitions accusing Google LLC and Google India Private Limited of abusing their dominant position under Section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. India has hampered the development of rival mobile applications in the market.