Play Store dominance case: Google moves Supreme Court against NCLAT ruling

New Delhi: Google and its related companies have filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's March order that partly upheld some of the findings of the Competition Commission of India on unfair practices and abuse of dominant position by them in their Play Store billing policy.

Google, along with Alphabet Inc, Google Ireland, Google India, Google India Digital Services - have challenged the March 28 judgment by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

The appellate tribunal largely affirmed the CCI's core findings that Google abused its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem through its Play Store policies and engaged in unfair promotion of Google Pay, thereby violating Section 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act.

The tech companies have also challenged the NCLAT's May 1 order that corrected its 'inadvertent error' in its original judgment, reinstating CCI’s two key data-related directives, which requires the tech giant to disclose its data policies and refrain from leveraging billing data for competitive advantage.

The appeal was filed on Monday. It is expected to come up for hearing soon.

CCI's October 20, 2024, order had penalised Google for allegedly exploiting its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store.

The competition watchdog had imposed a penalty of Rs 936 crore against the tech giant and its companies for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour by mandating the use of its Google Play Billing System for app purchases, while exempting its applications like YouTube from similar commission structures. 

The antitrust body had also directed Google to cease these practices, including allowing third-party billing and ensuring data transparency.

While the appellate tribunal affirmed the CCI's s order that Google imposed unfair and discriminatory conditions on app developers through mandatory use of Google Play billing system for paid apps and in-app purchases, it set aside the competition watchdog’s findings regarding denial of market access and restriction of innovation on the grounds that Google's billing services constituted less than 1% of total UPI transactions and that there was insufficient evidence of market foreclosure or hindrance to technical development.

The original penalty of Rs 936.44 crore was also reduced by the NCLAT to Rs 216.69 crore by limiting it to Play Store-specific revenues rather than the Google’s global turnover.