New Delhi: In what is possibly the first case of a big tech giant paying a fine to Indian regulators as the government aims to bring in a new Digital India Act, Google has paid the entire penalty amount of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the Competition Commission of India. . (CCI) in Android case.
Reliable sources told IANS on Tuesday that the entire penalty amount has been deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India within the 30-day deadline given by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in its order.
The Indian market regulator fined Google in October 2022 for allegedly taking advantage of its dominant position in the Android market.
Earlier this year, Google announced to comply with the CCI directive for Android.
Google had said in a statement, “The CCI’s recent directives for Android and Play require us to make significant changes for India, and we have informed the CCI how we will comply with their directives.”
“We are updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners creating non-compatible or forked variants,” Google said.
Through User Choice Billing, developers may offer users the option to choose an alternative billing system to Google Play’s billing system when purchasing in-app digital content.
The changes came after a Supreme Court bench said that the findings made by the CCI cannot be said to be “without jurisdiction or with manifest error” and refused to grant interim relief to Google while affirming the NCLAT order. Gave.
The bench directed the NCLAT to dispose of Google’s appeal by March 31 and gave Google seven days to deposit 10 per cent of the fine of Rs 1,337.76 crore imposed by the CCI.
Google had alleged that the CCI had copy-pasted parts of a European court order without examining the relevant evidence in India.
The CCI has also imposed a fine of Rs 936.44 crore on Google in a separate case for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies.
In response to Google’s announcement of implementing its new Google Play payment policy, the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) had expressed deep concern over the change in policy and demanded that the new policies should be put on hold, as Google Charging approx 30. The percentage service charge on app developers will prove to be a significant blow to the Indian startup ecosystem.