Google prepares to contest Android antitrust ruling at Supreme Court: Report

Google is getting ready to approach the Supreme Court in a few days to try to block a ruling by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that will force the search giant to change how it markets its Android platform, according to a media report.

A Reuters report stated that the tech giant is preparing to file a legal challenge at the apex court as the antitrust watchdog's January 19 deadline to implement changes to its model looms.

Last October, India’s antitrust watchdog imposed a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for anti-competitive practices with respect to licensing of its Android Operating System (OS) and proprietary mobile applications such as Play Store, Google Search, Google Chrome, YouTube, and others. 

Google has been concerned about the decision as the remedies ordered are seen as more sweeping than the European Commission's landmark 2018 ruling for imposing unlawful restrictions on Android mobile device makers. Google has challenged the fine in that case.

This development comes after Google suffered a setback on Wednesday when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal turned down its request to block the antitrust ruling and directed the company to pay 10% of the Rs 1,337.76-crore penalty imposed on it by CCI. The company argued implementation of CCI's directives will hurt its long-standing business model and consumer interests.

Google believes some of CCI's directives cannot be implemented, and the company "has no other option" than approaching the Supreme Court for relief, the report noted.

In October, the competition watchdog said in its assessment that it found Google to be dominant in the Indian market for licensable OS for smartphones, the app store for Android smartphone OS, general web search services, non-OS specific mobile browsers, and online video hosting platform.

Separately, Google has alleged that the Director General (DG) has copy-pasted paragraphs from the rulings of a European 2018 ruling against it, according to another Reuters report. The CCI and the European Commission have not responded to those allegations.

Last year, the CCI also imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.