SC rejects Google plea to stay order on ₹1,337 cr penalty

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order, directing Google to deposit 10% of a ₹1,337 crore fine imposed by India’s antitrust regulator for abusing the tech giant’s dominant position in the Android ecosystem.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said: “Findings of CCI (Competition Commission of India) cannot be said to be without jurisdiction or suffering from manifest error,” and refrained from making any observations on the arguments made by CCI and other app manufacturers, realizing that it could impact the proceedings filed by Google before the NCLAT in its appeal against the CCI’s 20 October order.

The bench allowed Google to approach NCLAT with this order in three days. However, it expedited the hearing by requesting the tribunal to decide the matter before 31 March.

As Google was to comply with the CCI order on a set of directions by 19 January, the court extended the time for compliance by a week.

The court’s order came despite Google agreeing to comply with the CCI order partially. The court asked Google on previous occasions whether it was willing to have the same set of compliance for the Indian market as directed by the European Commission (EC) in July 2018 on a finding of dominance by Google in the Android ecosystem. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Google, told the court that without prejudice to its appeal in NCLAT, the company was willing to comply with four aspects of the 20 October order.

This included unbundling of search and Chrome apps as also Chrome from Search app from the bouquet of pre-loaded apps offered to Android device manufacturers, exclusivity to Google search services, and allowing smartphone and tablet makers to produce without Google’s proprietary applications of Play and Search pre-installed.

Singhvi sought 45 days to comply with these directions. In addition, he also agreed to provide a choice screen for customers, allowing them to choose their default search engine during the initial device setup. However, as this required structural change, Singhvi offered to get it done in four months, even as in Europe, the company was given nine months to implement the same.

AP The court’s order came despite Google agreeing to comply with the CCI order partially.