Google, on June 26, filed an appeal in India's Supreme Court challenging the antitrust order imposed on it for abuse in the Android market. The tech giant is specifically appealing the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which upheld the antitrust order issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October 2022. "Today, we filed an appeal in the Supreme Court regarding the NCLAT’s decision in the Android case. The NCLAT correctly found that harm for anti-competitive behaviour needs to be proven but did not apply this requirement to several of the CCI’s directions that it upheld. We look forward to presenting our case before the Supreme Court and demonstrating how Android has benefitted Indian users, developers, and OEMs, and powered India’s digital transformation." — Google spokesperson CCI in its order, had imposed a hefty Rs 1,338 crore penalty on Google and, more significantly, directed the company to make ten major changes to Android. Google appealed the order by NCLAT, which in March 2023 upheld most of CCI's directions but set aside four of them. Earlier in June, CCI approached the Supreme Court to appeal the NCLAT's decision. The appeal at the Supreme Court is the last legal recourse for both Google and CCI, and the court's decision on the matter could decide the future of Android in India, as well as have bearings on the Play Store antitrust order, which Google is challenging separately. Timeline of events April 16, 2019: CCI launches investigation into Google Android. [read more]…
