A $160 million fine issued on Google by the nation’s antitrust agency in a case involving Android’s monopoly on the market has been maintained by an appeals court in India.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) conclusions were accurate, according to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), and Google was responsible for paying the penalties.
Nonetheless, it overturned four of the ten antitrust rules that the company was subject to.
Android is the operating system used by more than 95% of smartphones in India.
The CCI assessed the penalties for “unfair” business practices in October after accusing Google of abusing its dominating position.
It also asked Google to make several changes to the Android ecosystem. This included not forcing manufacturers to pre-install the entire suite of Google apps and allowing users to choose their default search engine.
The Android-related inquiry was started in 2019, following complaints by consumers of Android smartphones. The case was similar to the one Google faced in Europe, where regulators imposed a $5bn fine on the company, saying it used its Android operating system to gain unfair advantage in the market.
Google challenged the fine and the directives in India’s Supreme Court, saying “no other jurisdiction has ever asked for such far-reaching changes”.
It argued that the changes would force the company to alter arrangements with more than 1,100 device manufacturers and thousands of app developers.
The top court, however, refused to block the CCI directives and said that a lower court could continue hearing the appeal.
In January, Google agreed to co-operate with the watchdog and announced a series of changes to its Android system in India.
But the ruling by NCLAT means that the tech giant can stop users from removing its pre-installed apps from their phones.
Google can also continue to impose curbs on users downloading apps without using its app store and is free to block third-party app stores from its Play Store.