Google Moves SC Against NCLAT Order upholding Rs 1,338 Crore Anti-trust Penalty

27th June 2023, Google has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) ruling upholding a Rs 1,338 crore penalty for anti-trust offences.

A Google spokesperson said, “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.”

The spokesperson further added, “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.”

The NCLAT largely affirmed the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) abuse of Android dominance order against Google in March 2023. The tribunal further affirmed the CCI’s penalty of Rs 1,338 crore.

The anti-trust appellate tribunal determined that the CCI’s order is free of confirmation bias. Furthermore, the NCLAT ruled that Google’s request to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to pre-install the whole Google Suite of 11 programmes amounted to unfair terms.

The fair practises regulator ruled that Google could neither force OEMs of smart devices to preinstall its apps nor prevent customers from removing such apps. It also requested that the US conglomerate not provide any incentives to OEMs to comply with its terms.

Google moved the NCLAT in January but did not receive any instant relief. The corporation then appealed to the Supreme Court against the tribunal’s verdict. In turn, the Supreme Court declined to interfere in the matter and directed NCLAT to investigate.