Google-CCI standoff: Supreme Court posts case for final disposal on October 10

The opposing sides have filed appeals challenging aspects of the NCLAT’s March 29 order, in a case in which the American company was accused of pursuing anti-competitive practices.

A Bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that all the parties in the case should complete and exchange their pleadings/replies by October 3.

While senior advocate Harish Salve appeared on behalf of Google, additional solicitor general N Venkataraman represented the CCI.

ET had reported on June 15 that the CCI had moved the apex court challenging a part of the March 29 NCLAT order, which said that for proving abuse of dominance under Section 4 of the Competition Act, the watchdog needed to carry out an “effect analysis”. “…the test to be employed in the effect analysis is whether the abusive conduct is anticompetitive or not,” the order had noted.

Google, on the other hand, had challenged a part of the same order, which upheld the Rs 1,337-crore fine imposed on it for allegedly misusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem. The tech giant also sought to have six of the 10 directives imposed on it by the CCI, directing a change in its business model, quashed.

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In its March judgment, the NCLAT had set aside four of the 10 directives the antitrust watchdog had issued to Google to change its business model.The NCLAT had struck down the CCI’s directive asking Google to not deny access to its Play services application programming interface to disadvantage other equipment manufacturers, application developers and existing or potential competitors.

In addition, the tribunal struck down another CCI directive instructing Google to allow developers of application stores to distribute those stores through its Play Store.