Supreme Court to decide Google-CCI dispute finally on April 30

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will finally hear the cross-appeals filed by Google and the Competition Commission of India in the antitrust case on April 30.

A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud posted the matter for final disposal on April 30, after counsel for both the sides needed more time to argue as “there are several key areas that the court will consider for the first time.”

Google has challenged a part of the NCLAT’s March 29 order that upheld the Rs 1,337-crore fine imposed on it, and also quashing of six of the 10 directives that the anti-trust body imposed on the US search giant to change its business model for anti-competitive conduct in the Android ecosystem.


The anti-trust body has also partially challenged the appellate tribunal judgment that set aside four of the 10 directives it had issued to the US tech giant.

The CCI also has challenged the NCLAT’s direction that held that for proving abuse of dominance under Section 4 of the Competition Act, the competition watchdog is required to do an “effect analysis” and “the test to be employed in the effect analysis is whether the abusive conduct is anticompetitive or not.”

The NCLAT had on March 29 partially upheld the CCI's October 20, 2022 order holding that the tech giant had abused its dominant position in markets such as online search and the Android app store.

The Commission had directed Google not to deny access to its play services application programming interface to disadvantage other equipment manufacturers, application developers and its existing or potential competitors. Striking down this direction, the appellate tribunal observed that the ruling was unsustainable.

Further, the tribunal rejected the CCI’s order to Google to not restrict the ability of app developers, in any manner, to distribute their apps through side-loading.