Officials of CCI found in a fourteen page order that Google appears to have misused its dominant position in India and reduced the ability of device manufacturers to opt for alternate versions of its Android mobile operating system, which should amount to imposition of “unfair conditions” under India’s competition law. However, a wider probe has been ordered.
The investigation, which began in April, stemmed from a complaint from CCI executives where they said Google mandated smartphone makers to exclusively pre-install its own applications or services in order to get access to any part of Google Mobile Services. This has hindered development and market access of rival mobile applications or services, they alleged. They also alleged that Google bundled certain apps and services which connect with other Google apps, services or programming.
The Indian case is similar to one Google faced in Europe, where regulators imposed a $5 billion fine on the company for forcing manufacturers to pre-install its apps on Android devices. Google has appealed against the verdict there.
In pursuance of the investigation, the CCI director-general has asked for statistics on India’s smartphone base, smartphone and tablet sales trends over the years, operating systems, apps on Android besides data on Internet, from research firms such as Counterpoint Research and International Data Corporation India (IDC), people aware of the development said. While IDC India has already sent its responses, Counterpoint is in the process of doing so, their people said.
This post has been authored by Tasneem Zakir, 3rd year, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
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