India’s Supreme Court has admitted cross-appeals filed by Google, the country’s antitrust watchdog and a leading industry group over an appellate ruling that partly upheld findings of abuse of dominance in Google’s Play Store policies, the court said on Monday.
The appeals pit Google and its affiliates — Alphabet Inc, Google Ireland, Google India and Google India Digital Services — against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF). The case will be heard in November, The Economic Times reported.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in April upheld key CCI findings that Google abused its dominant position in the Android mobile device ecosystem by imposing restrictive billing practices and unfairly promoting its own payment service, Google Pay, in violation of Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act.
However, the tribunal reduced a ₹936 crore ($112 million) penalty imposed in October 2022 to ₹216.69 crore ($26 million), limiting it to revenue linked to the Play Store rather than Google’s global earnings. It also overturned CCI conclusions that Google had denied market access or stifled innovation, noting that its billing transactions accounted for less than 1% of UPI payments and that there was insufficient evidence of competitive harm.
Google is also appealing a separate NCLAT order from May that corrected what the tribunal described as an “inadvertent error.” That order reinstated two directives originally issued by the CCI: requiring Google to disclose its data policies and prohibiting the use of billing data for competitive advantage.
The CCI’s 2022 penalty followed a probe which found Google forced developers to use its Play Billing System for paid apps and in-app purchases, while exempting its own services such as YouTube. The watchdog ordered the company to allow third-party billing options and ensure greater transparency over its data practices.
The dispute has drawn support from several Indian startups and industry bodies, including People Interactive India (Shaadi.com), Mebigo Labs (Kuku FM), the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation, and the Indian Digital Media Industry Foundation, who have pressed for deeper scrutiny of Google’s billing and data policies.
The Supreme Court’s eventual ruling is expected to have far-reaching implications for app store governance and competition policy in one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing mobile markets.
