On Wednesday, an Indian judiciary partially gave relief to Alphabet Inc.’s Google by overturning four of ten antitrust rulings in a case involving the abuse of its dominant position in Android.
In October, the Indian Competition Commission (CCI) declared that Google had abused its dominant position in Android and ordered it to lift all restrictions imposed on device manufacturers, including those relating to the pre-installation of apps.
Regulators imposed a penalty of $161 million on Google.On Wednesday, an Indian appeals tribunal upheld CCI’s conclusions that Google engaged in anti-competitive behaviour and ordered the corporation to pay the fine, but it overturned four of the ten antitrust remedies that required Google to alter its business strategy.
Third-party app stores
Among the reliefs, Google will now not need to allow hosting of third-party app stores inside Play Store. As previously ordered by the CCI.
The move will come as some relief for Google after India’s Supreme Court in January refused to suspend any of the antitrust remedies ordered last year. The top court had asked the tribunal to hear the case on merit and rule by March end.
The worlds no 1 search engine has been concerned about India’s Android decision as the directives were seen as more sweeping than those imposed in the European Commission’s landmark 2018 ruling against the operating system.
It has said “no other jurisdiction has ever asked for such far-reaching changes”, and repeatedly argued that the growth of its Android ecosystem will stall in India due to the decision.