NCLAT partially upholds CCI order against Google

Penalty imposed on global giant lowered to ₹216 crore from ₹936 crore

- BHAVINI MISHRA

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Friday partially upheld the Competition Commission of India's (CCI's) ruling on Google for alleged misuse of its dominant position related to Play Store policies and said the search engine giant had abused its dominant position in the Android mobile ecosystem, more particularly through its Play Store billing practice.

The tribunal, however, reduced the penalty the CCI levied on Google to ₹216 crore from ₹936.44 crore.

In its order on Friday, the tribunal said Google would allow and not restrict app developers from using any third-party billing services; would not impose any anti-steering provisions on app developers or restrict them from communicating with their users to promote their apps; and would not discriminate against other apps facilitating payment through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India vis-à-vis its own UPI app, in any manner.