SC to hear pleas of Google, CCI on 14 July related to ₹1,338-crore fine on tech giant

livemint.com:

National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had on 29 March handed out a mixed verdict on Google's alleged anti-competitive practices in the case - upholding a fine of ₹1,338 crore but scrapping conditions like allowing hosting of third-party app stores on its play store. The NCLAT had struck down anti-trust regulator order that had said Google will not restrict the removal of its pre-installed apps by the users.

 the agency hd also upheld the fine imposed by the CCI for exploiting its dominant position in Android.  Both Google and the CCI came to the Supreme Court against the NCLAT judgement. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha took up the appeals and adjourned the hearing to next Friday after taking note of the submissions that senior advocate Harish Salve, representing one of the parties, was unavailable.

"We will list these for hearing on July 14," the CJI said. Earlier, the NCLAT in its 189-page order, upheld CCI's six directions, including one in which Google was asked to allow the users during the initial device setup to choose their default search engine, and another that made it clear that OEMs cannot be forced to pre-install a bouquet of apps.

The appellate tribunal asked Google to implement the direction and deposit the amount in 30 days. The appellate tribunal said "the impugned order of the Commission is upheld except the four directions" issued and added that Google is "thus not entitled for any other relief except for setting aside the above four directions".