CCI informs Karnataka High Court of final case hearing

CCI informs Karnataka High Court of final case hearing

The Competition Commission of India said it would close the petition filed by Google against its order

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has told the Karnataka High Court that it would finally hear the case regarding Google Play Store rules. It said that it was not keen on taking on two rounds of litigation

With this submission, the Commission requested the High Court to close the petition filed by Google against its order. The order sought a response to the information filed by certain startups and app developers assailing the latest Google Play Store policy.

The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) N Venkataraman, appearing for the CCI, submitted that the director-general had sought an extension of 60 days to conclude its investigation, and in all likelihood, it would be done within the stipulated time.

He suggested that the petition could be closed, subject to two assurances from Google. One, the company would extend its cooperation in the investigation. Two, it would not advance the date of the Google Play Store billing system release.

Senior advocates Gopal Subramanium and Sajan Poovayya, representing Google, unequivocally appreciated the stand taken by the CCI. They assured the court that both conditions were already being complied with.

Advocate Abir Roy, appearing for Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), however, stressed that his client's right to re-file for interim relief would not be foreclosed by this decision.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Krishna Dixit sought a memorandum from the counsel representing all parties in order to iron out the details.

Last year, ADIF, a think tank for India's digital startups, filed the information with the CCI that Google was abusing its dominant position in the UPI payments market.

In its order, the Commission had expressed concern over the pre-installation and prominence of Google Pay on android smartphones. The CCI directed its investigation wing to examine whether Google's conduct of mandating the use of its payments system was anti-competitive.

ADIF later filed additional information containing the names of the startups that were affected by Google's alleged abuse of dominance in the market. The CCI then directed ADIF to redact the names of the startups before sending a copy of the information to Google. It later turned down Google's request for disclosure of the names and sought a response from the company by December 31.

Aggrieved by the order, the tech giant had approached the Karnataka High Court. Google had argued that the application shared with the company did not contain complete information. It had redactions over the names and identities of app developers and start-ups, which prevented it from making a case.