Taxsutra Special Webinar by ASG N. Venkataraman - ‘NCLAT Ruling in Google case - Watershed Moment in Competition Law’!

Episode Duration:
80 minutes

Episode Background:
In a weighty ruling, the NCLAT upheld the Rs. 1,337 Cr. penalty levied by the Competition Commission of India on tech giant Google, for abuse of dominance in the Android Ecosystem. The Appellate Tribunal gave Google 30 days to pay the penalty. 

In its judgment, NCLAT inter alia affirmed CCI’s observation that Google perpetuated its dominant position in the online search market, resulting in the denial of market access for competing search apps. The Tribunal also confirmed the CCI finding that mandating pre-installation of its entire Google Mobile Suite (GMS) – a group of Google apps viz. Google search, Chrome browser, YouTube, Google Maps, and Gmail – amounted to imposing unfair conditions on Original Equipment Manufacturers, which again, is abuse of dominant position by Google. NCLAT said in its ruling that, by making pre-installation of GMS suite conditional to signing of various Agreements, Google had "reduced the ability and incentive" of device manufacturers to develop and sell self-device operating or alternative versions of Android and Android Forks and thereby limited technical and scientific development.

What shall the episode cover?

In this episode, the man at the centre of the case, Additional Solicitor General and Legal Eagle - Senior Advocate N. Venkataraman, analysed the key aspects of the NCLAT ruling, and the impact that the judgment will have on the BigTech.