India investigates Google and Apple for anti-competitive behavior

India's Competition Commission is investigating Google and Apple for alleged unfair business practices as the the global discourse on market dominance of major tech companies continues to ramp up.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has launched an investigation against tech giants Google and Apple for alleged unfair business practices. CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur announced that the watchdog has initiated a detailed probe into Google for its alleged dominance in the smart television and news aggregation sectors.

Apple is also being investigated for alleged anti-competitive behavior related to its App Store. These investigations are conducted by the Directorate General (DG) of the CCI when there is enough evidence of anti-competitive practices.

Inc42 points out that Google has previously faced penalties and had to change its operations in India due to antitrust rulings. The current allegations against Google concern its dominance in the news aggregation space, with industry bodies complaining about unfair content practices.

On the other hand, the CCI's scrutiny of Apple is related to its app billing policy. This includes Apple's 30% App Store commission fee, as well as the absence of third-party payment alternatives. These investigations follow allegations from multiple companies and industry bodies.

Apple faces scrutiny over its App Store practices in multiple countries. Most recently, a Russian court has upheld a $12 million fine against Apple for alleged in-app payment App Store dominance abuse.

In February, The US Department of Justice ramped up its antitrust investigation against Apple as it sought to determine if App Store rules are disadvantageous to competitors.

5 Comments

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

About 1 year ago

Maybe the CCI should spend more time investigating all the India-based scammers. Let's get rid of them before discussing unfair practices by Google and Apple.

ravnorodom 720 comments · 8 Years

Is your local government broke? No problem. Just sue Apple and Google for whatever in that top ten lawyer's list.

jdw 1444 comments · 18 Years

Never ceases to amazing me how elected officials think. These people carry Apple and Google tech with them at all times, then have so much free time on their hands that they ask themselves, "How can we bite the hand that feeds us, giving the average citizen the impression we're actually doing something great on their behalf?"

Country doesn't matter. This mentality universally true.

davidw 2112 comments · 17 Years

Lets see who's behind the scene with these all these government investigations dealing with Apple and google app stores in ....

India

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/brandwagon-adif-joins-hands-with-caf-to-build-fair-app-marketplace-2371248/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/622773dd8fa8f526d907f694/Coalition_for_App_Fairness_11.3.22.pdf

S. Korea

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/11/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-speak-app-store-conference/

Japan

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-Europe-and-US-app-developers-tie-up-to-check-IT-giants

US and EU

http://www.fosspatents.com/2020/09/political-clout-of-newly-founded.html

See any common denominator?

These aren't cases of the government responding to consumer complaints but cases brought on by the heavy lobbying efforts of the a small group of multi million dollar developers (that have made billions of dollars off iOS and Android ecosystems) that makes up the Coalition of App Fairness, whose main goal is to convince governments that it's unfair for Google and Apple to charge a commission to developers, for making money on their ecosystems IP. But the CAF have no problem with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo charging the same commission on their game console ecosystems IP. They represent the wealthy developers who will gain the most from avoiding paying Apple and Google their commissions, not the consumers.

spheric 2702 comments · 9 Years

rob53 said:

Maybe the CCI should spend more time investigating all the India-based scammers. Let's get rid of them before discussing unfair practices by Google and Apple.

Why should an agency whose job is to promote and sustain fair competition in Indian markets be investigating fraud? It's called the "Competition Commission of India", not the fucking POLICE.

That's like asking the DMV to spend more time investigating car-jacking.

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