For abusing its dominant position in several markets within the Android mobile device ecosystem, India’s Competition Commission has fined Google 1,337.76 crore (13,377,600,000 or $161.5 million) and ordered the company to open the Android ecosystem to competition.
The penalty was imposed after the Commission looked into the regional markets for mobile device operating systems, Android app stores, web search engines, non-OS mobile web browsers, and online video hosting services.
With tools like the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), which forced Android licensees to incorporate Google’s apps, the Commission tried to protect Google’s position as the market leader in all five markets after concluding it did so.
The CIC concluded that MADA ensured that the most popular search entry points—namely, the search app, widget, and Chrome browser—are pre-installed on Android devices, giving Google’s search services a significant competitive advantage over its rivals. For its own apps like YouTube on Android smartphones, Google’s regulations also give the corporation a “substantial competitive edge over its competitors.”
According to research firm Counterpoint, the Android mobile operating system from the California-based corporation is by far the market leader in India and is used on 95% of all smartphones there.
However, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that the operating system was set up in a way that illegally crowded out competitors to YouTube, Chrome, and other well-known Google apps.
According to a CCI statement late Thursday, Android’s pre-installed Google apps, which included the company’s own search engine, “awarded significant competitive edge to Google’s search services over its competitors.”
The statement said, “Markets should be permitted to compete on merits, and it is incumbent upon (Google) to ensure that its conduct does not impede this competition on merits.”
The company was ordered by the commission to allow Android users to uninstall any pre-installed Google apps, or else face a fine of 13.4 billion Indian rupees ($162 million).
Additionally, it warned Google against making any agreements with smartphone manufacturers that would encourage them to only sell products based on Android or to use its software exclusively.
The business declared that it will examine the choice and consider its next steps.
The CCI’s ruling “raises the price of mobile devices and is a big setback for Indian consumers and businesses, opening serious security dangers for Indians,” a spokeswoman told AFP.
A comparable anti-trust decision against Google in the European Union ruled that it had placed “unlawful limitations” on smartphone manufacturers in order to advance its search engine.
A $4.1 billion fine levied on the corporation was upheld last month by the EU’s second-highest court.
Global regulators have followed suit, and Google is now the target of other lawsuits in Asia and the United States based on allegations that are quite similar.
After China, India has the second-highest percentage of smartphone users worldwide.
According to Counterpoint, its smartphone market experienced year-over-year growth of 27% in 2021 with sales of more than 169 million devices.
Leading Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Oppo account for more than 60% of the phones sold in the nation.
Although it has made some strides in recent years, Apple is still a modest player in the market for consumers on a tight budget. Last month, the company revealed intentions to produce the iPhone 14 locally.
