On Thursday, the Indian Competition Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Google to modify the way it handles the Android platform and fined the American tech giant $161.95 million for engaging in anticompetitive behavior.
According to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Google used its hegemony in areas like online search and the Android app store to defend the positions of its applications like Chrome and YouTube in mobile Web browsers and online video hosting.
Additionally, CCI forbade Google from entering into specific revenue-sharing arrangements with smartphone manufacturers, saying that these agreements had aided Google in securing search engine monopoly “to the utter exclusion of competitors.”
According to CCI, “Markets should be permitted to compete on merits, and it is the dominant actors’ (in this case, Google) responsibility to ensure that their behavior does not impede this competition on merits.”
Separate investigations are being conducted by the competition authority into Google’s business practices in the smart TV industry and its in-app payment mechanism.
Two junior Indian antitrust research associates and a law student filed a complaint in 2019, which led to the launch of the Android-related investigation. The situation in India is comparable to one that Google encountered in Europe, where authorities fined the corporation $5 billion for pressuring manufacturers to pre-install its software on Android smartphones.
India on Thursday gave Google the go-ahead to allow smartphone users to delete its pre-installed programs, such as Google Maps and Gmail.
Additionally, CCI requested that Google let consumers select their preferred search engine when configuring a phone for the first time for all pertinent services.
According to Counterpoint Research, 97% of the 600 million cellphones in India run on the Android operating system.
