Google said on Friday it had appealed an order from India’s antitrust authority against the company over alleged anticompetitive practices around Android mobile devices in a key overseas market.
The company approached the National Corporate Law Court of Appeal (NCLAT), the country’s court of appeal, to appeal against October Order of the Competition Commission of Indiain which the watchdog fined Google $162 million.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement: “We have decided to appeal CCI’s decision on Android because we believe it poses a major obstacle for our Indian users and businesses, who trust Android’s security features and potentially drive up the cost of mobile devices.”
“We look forward to making our case in NCLAT and remaining committed to our users and partners.”
In October, the CCI, which began investigating Google three and a half years ago, said it had discovered that Google requires device manufacturers to pre-install its entire Google Mobile Suite and requires placing apps on it. such application in the prominent position of “imposing unfair status on equipment manufacturers” and thus “in violation of the provisions of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act. “
A few days later, CCI attacked Google with another $113 million fine for allegedly abusing the dominant position of the Google Play Store and ordering the company to allow app developers to use third-party payment processing services for in-app purchases or for purchases application.
India is an important overseas market for Google, which has attracted more than 500 million users in the South Asian market. The company, which has poured billions of dollars into its business in India over the past decade, has committed to invest another 10 billion USD in the country in the next few years.
