Google on January 7 filed an appeal at India's Supreme Court to block an antitrust order dealt by the country's competition regulator, Economic Times reported. The company will likely ask for an urgent hearing this week, the report added, but a date is yet to be fixed. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed an antitrust order on Google in October last year for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets related to its Android ecosystem. Google had last week appealed the order at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), but the tribunal denied any interim relief, forcing Google to approach the Supreme Court. Google is claiming that the tribunal's order is "completely ambiguous and unsustainable as the direction for deposit of 10% of the penalty amount did not grant any interim protection against the other directions issued by the CCI," the ET report stated. Why does this matter: If Google is not granted any relief at the Supreme Court, the company will have to make some extensive changes to its Android policies by January 18, such as: No forced pre-installation of Google apps like Google Maps, Search, Chrome, etc. Allow users to set other search engines like Bing as default at the device setup stage Allow listing of other app stores on the Play Store No restrictions on side-loading i.e. allowing users to download apps from outside app stores, such as from a browser, without showing them warnings or making it difficult in some way No disincentivising Android forks i.e.…
