In October 2022, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a fine of ₹936.44 crores on Google for abusing its dominant position regarding Play Store policies. The CCI also directed Google to undertake 8 remedial measures within a period of 3 months. Google challenged CCI’s order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

On Friday, the NCLAT modified CCI’s order by setting aside 4 out of the remedial directions and reducing the penalty by ₹ 720 crores. The decision was delivered by bench comprising of Hon’ble Chairperson Justice (Retd.), Ashok Bhushan and Technical Member, Barun Mitra.

The NCLAT has set aside the following remedial directions finding these to be unsustainable since CCI has not found Google’s conduct in relation to these remedies to be anti-competitive or abusive:

  1. Google shall set out a clear and transparent policy on data that is collected on its platform, use of such data by the platform and also the potential and actual sharing of such data with app developers or other entities, including related entities;
  2. The competitively relevant transaction/ consumer data of apps generated and acquired through GPBS, shall not be leveraged by Google to further its competitive advantage. Google shall also provide access to the app developer of the data that has been generated through the concerned app, subject to adequate safeguards, as highlighted in this order;
  3. Google shall not impose any condition (including price related condition) on app developers, which is unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory or disproportionate to the services provided to the app developers; and
  4. Google shall ensure complete transparency in communicating to app developers, services provided, and corresponding fee charged. Google shall also publish in an unambiguous manner the payment policy and criteria for applicability of the fee(s).

Further, the NCLAT has also set aside 3 out of the 5 violations established by the CCI against Google in relation to abuse of dominant position. More specifically, the NCLAT held that:

  1. Commission/service fee charged by Google is not unfair or discriminatory;
  2. Google’s requirement to use Google Play Billing System for app and in-app purchases through Google Play did not lead to denial of market access to the payment processors and aggregators;
  3. Google’s requirement to use Google Play Billing System for app and in-app purchases through Google Play did not lead restriction or limitation of technical or scientific development in the market of payment processors and aggregators; and 
  4. YouTube not paying service fee to Google is not discriminatory.

While disagreeing with CCI’s computation of penalty based on Google’s entire turnover in India (i.e., including products other than Play Store and Google Pay), the NCLAT reduced the penalty amount from ₹936.44 crores to ₹216.69 crores by limiting it only to Google’s turnover from the infringing products (Play Store and Google Pay).

Google was represented by Senior Advocates Sajan Poovayya and Ritin Rai, along with Advocates Karan Chandhiok, Deeksha Manchanda, Tarun Donadi and Bhavika Chhabra from Chandhiok and Mahajan and Advocates Avaantika Kakkar and Kaustav Kundu from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Senior Advocate Mr. Sajan Poovayya was assisted by Advocates Raksha Agrawal and Palash Maheshwari and Senior Advocate Mr. Ritin Rai by Advocate Dayaar Singla

CCI was represented by Senior Advocate Balbir Singh with Advocates Samar Bansal, Manu Chaturvedi, Monica Benjamin, Kaustubh Chaturvedi, Vedant Kapur, Karan Sachdev, Shivali Singh, Ananya Singh, Vedant Kohli and Khwaja Umair.

Alliance Digital India Foundation (ADIF) was represented by Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta with Advocates Abir Roy, Vivek Pandey, Aman Shankar, S Panda, Biyanka Bhatia, Shreya Kapoor and Rajat Sharma from SARVADA Legal.