India Fines Google $162 Million for Abusing Its Android Market Dominance

The Google logo is pictured at the Google India office building in Hyderabad on Jan. 28, 2022. (Noah Swwlam/AFP via Getty Images)

India’s competition watchdog on Oct. 20 fined Google 13.38 billion Indian rupees ($162 million) for “abusing its dominant position” in multiple markets related to the Android mobile device ecosystem.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said that Google abused its dominance in licensing the Android mobile operating system and various proprietary mobile applications, such as Google Chrome and Youtube.

In a statement, the watchdog accused the tech giant of perpetuating its dominant position in the online search market to prevent other search applications from gaining market access.

Google also leveraged its dominance in the app store market for the Android operating system (OS) to protect its position in the non-OS-specific web browser market through Google Chrome and Youtube, the CCI said.

It added that Google reduced the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell devices that run alternative versions of Android by making pre-installation of its proprietary apps conditional.

“The CCI opined that the markets should be allowed to compete on merits and the onus is on the dominant players (in the present case, Google) that its conduct does not impinge this competition on merits,” it said.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Google for comments.

According to the watchdog, Google secured a “significant competitive edge” over its competitors in relation to its revenue-earning app on Android devices, such as YouTube.

“The competitors of these services could never avail the same level of market access which Google secured and embedded for itself through [Mobile Application Distribution Agreement],” it added.

The CCI said that Google was given 30 days to provide the requisite financial details and supporting documents. It also issued a cease and desist order to Google on several of its business practices.

For example, it stated that Google should not deny access to its Play Services plugins to disadvantage original equipment manufacturers, app developers, and its existing or potential competitors.

The CCI also emphasized that original equipment manufacturers should not be forced to pre-install Google’s proprietary applications.

Abuse of Dominance in News Aggregation

Earlier this year, the CCI ordered a probe into Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, over complaints that the company has allegedly “abused its dominant position” in news aggregation and imposed “unfair conditions” on news publishers.

The order came following a complaint from the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), which comprises the digital arms of some of India’s biggest media companies.

The DNPA claimed that “more than 50 percent of the total traffic on the news websites is routed through Google,” which is deemed the most dominant search engine that determines which news websites get discovered via search.