CCI Penalty On Google:
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs. 936.44 crores on Alphabet-owned Google for “abusing its dominant position” in markets related to the Android mobile device ecosystem.
- The CCI ordered an investigation into Google Unfair Business Practices in 2019 after consumers complained about Android-based smartphones.
- The allegations against Google were based on two agreements between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of Android OS and Google — the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) and the Anti-Fragmentation Agreement (AFA).
- The CCI stated that Google contravened competition law due to mandatory pre-installation of the entire Google Mobile Suite (GMS) under MADA and there was no option to uninstall the same.
- GMS is a collection of Google applications and Application Programming Interface (APIs) that help support functionality across devices.
- GMS includes Google’s key offerings such as Google Search, Google Chrome, YouTube, Play Store, and Google Maps.
- This action of Google amounted to imposition of unfair conditions on the device manufacturers and thereby violated Section 4 of the competition Act.
- Section 4 of the Competition Act is related to abuse of dominant position.
Competition Commission of India (CCI):
- Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002, it was duly constituted in March 2009.
- The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was repealed and replaced by the Competition Act, 2002, on the recommendations of the Raghavan committee.
