Google Scores Partial Win in Android Antitrust Case in India: All the Details

An Indian court on Wednesday granted partial relief to Alphabet Inc’s Google by striking down four of 10 antitrust directives in a case involving its abuse of its dominant position in Android.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in October that Google had abused its dominance in Android and urged it to remove restrictions on device makers, including pre-installing apps. It also fined Google $161 million.

India’s appeals court on Wednesday said the CCI’s findings of anti-competitive behavior by Google were correct and the company was also liable to pay a fine, but it overturned four of 10 antitrust restrictions imposed on Google to change its business model.

As a relief, Google now does not have to allow third-party app stores to be hosted on the Play Store, as the CCI had ordered earlier.

The move comes as a relief to Google after India’s Supreme Court refused in January to suspend any of the antitrust restrictions imposed last year. The Supreme Court had asked the court to consider the case thoroughly and decide by the end of March.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, Google made sweeping changes to Android in India, including allowing device manufacturers to license individual apps for pre-installation and allowing users to choose their default search engine — changes that were not interfered with by an Indian court on Wednesday.

Among other reliefs, Google doesn’t have to allow users to uninstall pre-installed apps like Google Maps, Gmail, and Youtube. The company may also continue to restrict so-called side-loading, the practice of downloading apps without an app store, which the CCI says must be stopped.

It was not immediately clear whether Google plans to re-appeal the decision to overturn the CCI’s other remedies. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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