 upholding the imposition of Rs 1337.76 crore penalty on the tech giant by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).){kind=link}
The Supreme Court will hear on October 10, the appeal filed by Google Inc against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upholding the imposition of Rs 1337.76 crore penalty on the tech giant by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra noted that it would need more time to prepare to hear the matter.
Senior Advocate Harish Salve suggested that the Apex Court list the matter for final disposal in September or October.
The Bench took the suggestion into consideration and listed the case for final disposal on October 10.
The Apex Court directed the lawyers to file brief notes and exchange them. The counsels were further ordered to exchange the issues to be raised by October 3.
Appointing Samar Bansal as the nodal counsel for the case, the Bench directed the parties to prepare soft copies of convenience compilation.
Earlier on June 28, Google had filed an application in the Supreme Court against the March 29 order of NCLAT that upheld the Rs 1,337.76 crore penalty imposed on the tech giant by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for anti-competitive conduct in the Android ecosystem.
As per media reports, Google had filed an appeal against the NCLAT order because the Tribunal, while acceding to the fact that harm for anti-competitive behaviour needed to be proven, did not apply this requirement to several of CCI’s directions, which it upheld.
On March 29, the Bench of NCLAT Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Dr Alok Srivastava, Member (Technical) had set aside the four key directions issued in paragraphs 617.3, 617.9, 617.10, and 617.7 of the CCI order.
The CCI had ruled under Paragraph 617.3 that Google shall not deny access to its play services Application Programming Interface (APIs) to disadvantage the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), app developers and its existing or potential competitors.
Under Paragraph 617.7, it said Google shall not restrict uninstalling of its pre-installed apps by the users.
Paragraph 617.9 directed Google to allow the developers of app stores to distribute their app stores through Google Play Store.
The CCI order under Paragraph 617.10 told Google not to restrict the ability of app developers in any manner to distribute their apps through side-loading.
The Appellate Tribunal found in its order that the investigation conducted by CCI into Google’s conduct was not in violation of principles of natural justice. It further held that the pre-installation of entire Google Mobile Services (GMS) on Android phones did amount to unfair use.
It said by making pre-installation of GMS suite conditional to signing of AFA/ACC for all Android devices manufacturers, the Appellant had reduced the ability and incentive of devices manufacturers to develop and sell self-device operating or alternative version of Android and Android Forks, thereby limiting the technical and scientific development, which was in breach of provisions of Section 4(2)(b)(ii) of the IT Act.