GOOGLE ANDROID CASE

                        Google, the search engine developed in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Stanford University is  now one of the most powerful company in the world and the most valuable brands. It is now into a controversy in India since October 2022. The Competition Commission of India(CCI) has filed a case against Google on the basis of a report by Director General(DG) stating that Google was abusing its dominant position in the android mobile device markets and was fined Rs 1337.76 crore. On March 29, 2023 , the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal(NCLAT) gave its judgement regarding the case stating that CCI's finding of anti competitive conduct of Google was correct but at the same time gave relief to Google to a small extent when four out of ten directives were cancelled by the tribunal on March 29 . The antitrust directives were to be followed by Google as part of the allegation , in order to bring a change in its business model.

                    As per the previous order by CCI, Google had to host a third party app store inside play store. But as per recent judgement it was removed. Earlier, as per the order from the supreme court , Google made changes by allowing the smart phone maker to license the pre installation  applications and the users were given option to choose a default search engine of their choice. Now, as per the tribunal's judgement , Google need not allow users to remove the pre installed apps such as Google , Gmail and YouTube. Also Google is now allowed to impose restrictions on downloading apps without using an app store, which was earlier objected by CCI.

                The case originally started in 2019 by Umar Javeed, Sukarma Thapar and Aaqib Javeed. Then by October 2022, a case was filed against Google by CCI stating that many Google apps were pre installed in the smartphones by default. The users were unable to remove the Google apps and not able to change the search engine of their desire. This was an anti competitive conduct by Google. As per the OEM(Original Equipment Manufacturers) of Android's agreement with Google, all Google applications and Google services were pre installed in android devices before shipping or distributing to the market. For OEM to get a Google mobile service license from Google, they needed to pre install all the Google apps and services such as Google play, Google search , Google maps , Google drive etc. They were not allowed to choose from this bundle of Google apps and services. This was an anti competitive move where other mobile application's development and services were hindered.

                 Thus the latest decision by NCLAT has brought partial relief to Google because in January the supreme court refused to suspend any of the antitrust directives .But now when the four out of ten antitrust directives were quashed , it has provided Google some relaxation to review the order and evaluate the legal options.