Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the Google Android matter on Monday, OSlabs Technology (India) Private Limited (OSlabs), a competing start-up that has built App Bazaar, India’s only indigenous mobile app store, has moved an application for impleadment. The impleadment application has been moved through Advocate Shardul S Shroff.
The start-up has turned the heat upon Google (by challenging its appeal) just days before the January 19 deadline set by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the tech giant to comply to its directions in the Android case nears.
OSlabs is an Indian, homegrown, system apps company. In 2015, the OSlabs built and launched Indus OS, a modified (forked) version of Android OS, which made the OSlabs a direct competitor of Google in the market for licensable OS for smart mobile devices in India.
OSlabs also launched its branded mobile app store (Indus App Bazaar) and distributed it along with Indus OS on the smart mobile devices of partner OEMs. Thus, Indus App Bazaar was a direct competitor of Google Play Store in the market for app stores for Android OS in India.
“It should be noted that the findings arrived at and the modifications directed by the Commission are consistent with the modifications directed by competition authorities in other jurisdictions, who were examining similar allegations against Google as well”, said OSlabs in its impleadment application before Supreme Court.
For instance, pursuant to its order dated July 18, 2018 , the European Commission had directed Google to undertake similar modifications as has been directed by the Commission vide its Order dated October 20 last year.
Following the European Commission’s decision, Google implemented all the directed modifications, without seeking any stay of these modifications. Accordingly, Google has already implemented many of these modifications in other jurisdictions, and all that is required is that they implement them in India as well; there is no reason why India should not be treated at par with other jurisdictions, the impleadment application added.
Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder, CEO, Indus OS, said that Google has challenged the CCI ruling against it in the Supreme Court of India. In its plea filed with the apex Court , Google has stated that the ruling will stall the growth of the Android ecosystem in the country, and thus adversely impact all the stakeholders and also drive up the device price point.
‘Contradictory argument’
“The argument, however, is contradictory as competition breeds innovation which only makes technology more affordable for everyone. Google itself has pointed out that the prices of smartphone devices have dropped drastically over the last five years. This has been made possible only due to innovations in the field of mobile hardware. The CCI ruling against Google very clearly encourages software innovation, which will only help bring down the prices of smartphone devices, thus ensuring even further digital penetration as opposed to stalling the growth of the Android ecosystem by pushing up the device price point”, Deshmukh said.
He said that this democratisation (by CCI) in the field of software innovation will fuel further penetration of the Android ecosystem in the Indian market. This will also provide a level playing field for players like Indus OS and MapmyIndia, by ensuring unrestricted distribution within the Android ecosystem, he added.
In its ruling, CCI has categorically demonstrated multiple anti-competitive actions carried out by Google in the last decade. In fact, it scuttled Indian entrepreneurs in the Android ecosystem with unfair and restrictive Google policies.
“The CCI ruling against Google is a step towards ushering in the next phase of digital revolution in the country. It will allow more players to exist in the currently monopolistic market, leading to more innovation duly keeping the needs of the Indian users in mind, thus giving them the freedom of choice and thereby ensuring higher digital penetration and further decreasing the device prices”, Deshmukh added.
Meanwhile, OSlabs impleadment application said, “The Applicant (OSlabs) invested nearly two years of R&D in building the Indus OS and launched this OS and App Store with Micromax in 2015, and also partnered with other Indian mobile brands subsequently.
However, due to Google’s anti-competitive conduct, which has been examined and found proven by the Commission in the Order dated October 20 last year, the Applicant had no option but to discontinue any further investment in its OS business since 2017-18. Subsequently, in 2019, the Applicant re-launched the Indus App Bazaar as a standalone Business 2 Business (B2B) app store with over 4,00,000 apps, which are downloadable on smart mobile devices running Android OS”.
