NEW DELHI (Tuesday February 9, 2019) – India’s antitrust commission is looking into allegations that Alphabet Inc’s subsidiary ‘Google’ abuses its popular Android mobile operating system to block its rivals, told sources.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has for the past six months been reviewing a case similar to one Google faced in Europe that led to a fine of 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) by antitrust regulators last year, the sources said. Google has challenged that order.
The European Commission found Google had abused its market dominance since 2011 with practices such as forcing manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and its Chrome browser, together with its Google Play app store on Android devices.
“It is on the lines of the EU case, but at a preliminary stage,” said one of the sources, who is aware of the CCI investigation.
As per sources Google executives have in recent months met Indian antitrust officials at least once to discuss the complaint, which was filed by a group of individuals, one of the sources said.
The Indian watchdog could ask its investigations unit to further investigate the accusations against Google, or throw out the complaint if it lacks merit. The watchdog’s investigations have historically taken years to complete.
Android, used by device makers for free, features on about 85 percent of the world’s smartphones. In India, about 98 percent of the smartphones sold in 2018 used the platform, as per analysts.