Android case: CCI's Rs 1,337 crore fine unreasonable, Google tells NCLAT

Google on Thursday told the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order imposing a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore on it for allegedly misusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem was without any inquiry or analysis.

The Google counsel told the NCLAT bench of Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Dr Alok Srivastava, member (technical), the competition regulator’s findings that Google was trying to abuse its dominance by pushing Google Chrome into Android phones were devoid of a proper analysis.

“They (CCI) say Google apps can only be disabled. The question then is how much additional space the uninstallation will free, and if disabling slows the device. There is not an iota of finding on this. There is no inquiry or analysis on whether this has any effect on running of the device,” Google’s counsel argued.

The tech giant also said CCI itself had recognised that Google’s Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) was beneficial to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Once recognised, there can be no imposition of unfair terms, OEMs are free to install any other browser on the system, and, unlike Apple devices till 2020, Google Chrome is not the default browser on Android systems, it submitted.

“The charge against Google is that by pre-installing Google Chrome, it is ousting somebody. The ban was imposed on UC Browser in June 2020. In the first six months that year, the app was downloaded over 104 million times. The figure is from Google Play Store. Can we even counter that there is an exclusion on account of my MADA? None of this has been considered in the CCI order,” Google told the appellate tribunal.

The bench will continue hearing the matter on February 23.

The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) on October 20, 2022, penalised the tech giant and asked it to pay Rs 1337.76 crore for practices related to Android devices. Google was earlier given three months to comply with the CCI’s directive and its deadline was January 19. The tech giant then moved the NCLAT on December 22, 2022, and on January 4, the appellate tribunal asked Google to pay 10 per cent of Rs 1337.76 in three weeks and posted the matter for hearing on April 3. Seeking relief, Google then moved the apex court.

After the SC refused to grant interim relief to Google on January 19, the matter was sent back to NCLAT for the final order.