Google pays Rs 1,338-crore fine to CCI in Android case

New Delhi, May 2

In the first case of a Big Tech giant paying a heavy penalty to the Indian regulators as the government aims to bring in an inclusive Digital India Act (DIA), Google has paid the entire penalty amount of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the Android case. The regulator had imposed the penalty on Google in October 2022 for allegedly exploiting its dominant position in the Android market.

Dr Ritesh Malik, Director, Alliance for Digital India Foundation (ADIF), who has been at the forefront of helping Indian startups fight against the global Internet giants, said Big Tech firms started taking the fines/penalties as ‘cost of doing business’ and prefer to pay the same rather than making the ecosystem more fair and non-discriminative.

“It is important to note that Google has made the payment after spending all possible avenues, including reaching out to the SC and the NCLAT. The paramount concern is whether Google is complying with the CCI rulings in letter and spirit, which has not been the case today,” Malik added.

Earlier this year, Google announced to comply with the CCI’s directives for Android.

“The CCI’s recent directives for Android and Play require us to make significant changes for India, and we’ve informed the CCI of how we will be complying with their directives,” Google had said.

“We’re updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible or forked variants,” said Google.

Through user choice billing, developers can offer users the option to choose an alternative billing system alongside Google Play’s billing system when purchasing in-app digital content. The changes came as a Supreme Court Bench said the findings by the CCI cannot be said to be “without jurisdiction or with manifest error” and affirmed the NCLAT order, declining to grant interim relief to Google. — IANS

Exploited dominant position

• The entire penalty amount has been deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India, within the 30-day deadline given by the NCLAT in its order
• The Indian market regulator had imposed the penalty on Google in October 2022 for allegedly exploiting its dominant position in the Android market
• The CCI has also imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google in a separate case for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies