Supreme Court to hear Google's plea against CCI penalty on January 16

Google approached the Supreme Court following a setback at NCLAT, which refused to stay a CCI order

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on January 16 an appeal by Google against a decision by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which had refused to stay a Rs 1,337.76-crore penalty imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for alleged anti-competitive practices.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, on behalf of Google, mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and P S Narasimha for urgent listing.

Singhvi said extraordinary directions were passed by the CCI. The compliance date has been fixed as January 19 though the appeal was filed in December.

Also Read — No relief to Google as NCLAT denies plea against fine

"I am asking (listing of the case) for Friday. The compliance date (of the order) is January 19th otherwise the matter will become infructuous," he said.

“We will keep it on Monday,” the bench said.

The NCLAT had on January 4 found no urgency to pass an interim order, after noting that Google filed the appeal in December only though the order by the CCI was passed in October. Since no urgency was shown in filing the appeal, Google could not be allowed to insist on interim relief, the Tribunal has said.

It had directed Google to deposit 10 per cent of the fine amount.

Following the setback at NCLAT, which refused to stay a CCI order on abuse of dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem case, Google approached the Supreme Court.

The CCI had on October 20, 2022 imposed a whopping penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on the company for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in relation to Android mobile devices and ordered the internet major to cease and desist from various unfair business practices.

Within a week, the Competition Commission had again slapped a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on the internet major for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.

Google challenged the CCI order in the NCLAT, which is an appellate authority over the CCI against any direction issued by the regulator.