Google warns Android growth in India will stall due to antitrust order

The growth of Google's Android ecosystem is on the verge of stalling in India due to an antitrust order that asks the company to change how it markets the platform, the US company has said in a Supreme Court challenge seen by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October fined Alphabet Inc-owned Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in Android, which powers 97% of smartphones in India, and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps.

According to the Reuters report, Google has so far said the CCI decision will force it to change its long-standing business model, but its Indian Supreme Court filing for the first time quantifies the impact and details the changes the company will need to make.

Google will need to modify its existing contracts, introduce new licence agreements, and alter existing arrangements with more than 1,100 device manufacturers and thousands of app developers, it says.

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"Tremendous advancement in growth of an ecosystem of device manufacturers, app developers and users [are on] the verge of coming to a halt because of the remedial directions," stated Google's filing, which is not public.

"Google will be required to make far-reaching changes to the Android mobile platform, which has been in place for the last 14-15 years," the filing said.