Google's plea against CCI order in Android case raised in SC

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) Google LLC on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the arguments in the case related to the tech giant's alleged anti-competitive practices in the Android mobile device matter may take five-six days.

On March 29 last year, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had handed out a mixed verdict on Google's alleged anti-competitive practices in the case -- upholding a fine of Rs 1,338 crore but scrapping conditions like allowing hosting of third-party app stores on its Play Store.

The top court is seized of cross-pleas of Google and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) challenging a verdict of an appellate tribunal in a case related to the tech giant's alleged anti-competitive practices in the Android mobile device matter.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has already listed the cross-pleas for hearing on Thursday.

The pleas, however, are unlikely to reach for hearing during the day as the bench is seized of part-heard matters.

At the outset of day’s proceedings, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the tech giant, mentioned the plea and said the hearing in the case may take five-six days.

“It (the plea) will retain its position on board (list of business). Let us see things go...Let this matter start. We will see,” the CJI said.

Earlier in July, the apex court had said it will hear in the second week of September the cross-pleas of Google and the CCI in the case.

The bench had appointed lawyer Sameer Bansal as the nodal counsel for preparing common digital pleadings with the help of lawyers from both sides for easy adjudication of the matter.

The NCLAT, in its verdict, had upheld the fine imposed by the CCI on the tech giant for exploiting its dominant position in Android.

The NCLAT had struck down an anti-trust regulator order that had said Google will not restrict the removal of its pre-installed apps by the users.

Both Google and the CCI came to the Supreme Court against the NCLAT judgement.

On July 7 last year, the top court had taken up the appeals for the first time.

Earlier, the NCLAT in its 189-page order, upheld CCI's six directions, including one in which Google was asked to allow the users during the initial device setup to choose their default search engine, and another that made it clear that OEMs cannot be forced to pre-install a bouquet of apps.

The appellate tribunal had asked Google to implement the direction and deposit the amount in 30 days.

It had said "the impugned order of the Commission is upheld except the four directions" issued and added that Google is "thus not entitled for any other relief except for setting aside the above four directions".

"The appellant (Google) is allowed to deposit the amount of penalty (after adjusting the 10 per cent amount of penalty as deposited under order dated January 4, 2023) within a period of 30 days from today," it had said.

On October 20, 2022, the CCI had imposed a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for anti-competitive practices in relation to Android mobile devices. The regulator had also ordered the internet major to cease and desist from various unfair business practices. PTI