The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday declined to grant interim relief to Google seeking a stay on competition watchdog CCI's penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on the tech giant for abusing its dominant position with respect to Play Store policies.
Within the next four weeks, Google must deposit 10% of the fine with the appeal tribunal's register.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar and Alok Srivastava issued notices to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and other respondents and posted the matter for hearing on April 17, 2023.
NCLAT declined CCI stay order
Last week, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) also declined to stay another CCI order, in which it had slapped a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for anti-competitive practices in relation to Android mobile devices.
Google was fined over Rs 2,200 crore in two CCI rulings less than a week apart in October, marking a setback for the tech titan in one of the most promising digital markets globally.
Google was fined Rs 936.44 crore by CCI on October 25 for abusing its dominant position in relation to its Play Store policy.
The company has also been ordered by the regulator to stop all unfair business practises and take a number of steps to rectify the anti-competitive issues within a set time frame.
Google had subsequently said it is "pausing" enforcement of the requirement for developers to use Play's billing system for the purchase of digital goods and services for transactions by users in India while it reviews legal options, in the aftermath of the recent ruling by the CCI.
"Following the CCI's recent ruling, we are pausing enforcement of the requirement for developers to use Google Play's billing system for the purchase of digital goods and services for transactions by users in India while we review our legal options and ensure we can continue to invest in Android and Play," Google said in an update on help centre page on November 1.
Google is facing more probes
The search engine giant has faced criticism globally for mandating software developers using its app store to only use its proprietary in-app payment system that charge a commission of up to 30 per cent on purchases made within an app.
A separate investigation into Google's business practises in the Indian markets for Smart TVs and news content is also ongoing.
The tech giant was also fined Rs 1,337.76 crore by the Competition Commission for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour with regard to Android mobile devices.
Google had filed appeals before the NCLAT against the two orders of CCI in October.
Following the rejection from NCLAT, Google has moved Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear its case. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narsimha, have scheduled the matter for a hearing on Monday. The lawyer for Google argued in court that there is no finding that indicates an abuse of the big tech firm's dominant market position.
On January 4, while hearing the appeal in the Android matter, the appellate tribunal refused an interim stay on the competition regulator imposing a Rs 1,337-crore penalty and asked the US tech giant to deposit 10 per cent of the amount.
NCLAT admitted the search giant's challenge to the CCI slapping Rs 1,337.76-crore fine for abusing the dominant position of its Android smartphone operating system in the country.
With inputs from Agencies.
