The Competition Commission of India, India's anti-trust regulator, has ordered an investigation into Google for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its Android mobile OS to block rivals, per Reuters. The CCI last year started looking at the complaint, which is similar to one Google faced in Europe and paid a $5 billion penalty for. As of February, the CCI's investigation was at a preliminary stage. In mid-April, it decided there was merit in the accusations, it found that Google "abused its dominant position" and ordered a full probe. According to Reuters' source, the CCI's case is strong given the EU precedent. It remains unknown as to who filed the complained, but it involves more than one person. What was the EU anti-trust case? In the EU case, regulators said Google forced manufacturers to pre-install Google Search app and Chrome browser, together in the Google Play Store, on Android devices, giving it an unfair advantage. Additionally, Google also paid other phone manufacturers like Apple and service providers to to exclusively pre-install the Search app on their devices. Android features on 88% of the world's smartphones and 99% o the smartphones sold in India. Google has appealed the EU order, but to calm antitrust concerns, said its Android device users in Europe would be able to choose rival browsers and search engines. "This will involve asking users of existing and new Android devices in Europe which browser and search apps they would like to use." Google’s initial response was to start charging…
