Tech giant Google has accused India's Competition Commission (CCI) of favoring Amazon. Google claims that its efforts to develop a modified version of the Android system were hindered by the restrictions imposed by Google. According to Reuters report, Google has accused India's antitrust body of demanding changes to its business model solely for the protection of Amazon.
Google has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the CCI's order from October, which required the company to make ten modifications to its business model. The order was issued after the CCI found that Google had abused its dominant market position with its Android operating system, which powers 97% of India's smartphones.
In a filing submitted in a lower tribunal in December, Google stated that CCI officers had copied parts of a European ruling against them in a similar case. However, the CCI denied this allegation.
In October, the CCI imposed a fine of $163 million on Google. In its order, the CCI stated that modified versions of Google's Android operating system, known as Android forks, should be freely distributed without any licensing restrictions, including pre-installation of Google apps.
Amazon informed the CCI that Google's restrictions had impeded the development of its Android fork called Fire OS. In response, Google argued that the watchdog unfairly relied on this information to make an unfavorable decision. According to Reuters, in a filing made to the Supreme Court on June 26, Google stated, "Globally, Fire OS failed commercially due to poor user experience. In India, the Fire Phone was not even launched. Thus, the Commission called Amazon's lack of attempt to compete in India a failure and attributed it to Google's agreements."
The CCI's directive was issued "only to protect Amazon," which had complained that Google's restrictions prevented them from creating a forked version of Android.
Google has expressed particular concerns about India's Android decision as the directives were deemed more extensive than those imposed by the European Commission in its landmark 2018 ruling against Google for Android market abuse. Google has challenged both the South Korean and European orders.
In its October ruling, the CCI stated that Google's contractual restrictions had "reduced the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell" devices operating on Android forks, ultimately harming consumer interests.
According to court documents, Amazon informed Indian investigators that the creation of Fire OS, as a forked Android, required substantial resources, including thousands of employee hours.'
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