Within days after NCLAT rejected Google’s plea for a stay on the CCI ruling in the Android matter, this big tech approached the Supreme Court (SC) by filing an appeal against the NCLAT order declining its plea for interim relief.
The appeal is likely to be mentioned by Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Senior counsel representing Google, on Monday before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud.
While declining the interim relief to Google, the NCLAT Bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar, Member (Judicial) and Alok Srivastava, Member (Technical), observed on Wednesday that they (Google) have come to the Tribunal at the eleventh hour and that the records are voluminous. The NCLAT bench highlighted that the CCI order was passed on October 29 last year, and the appeal was filed on December 20, 2022 (60th day).
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“..once order was passed in the month of October, had there been any such urgency it was expected that the appellant would have approached the tribunal forthwith. However, in this case no such urgency was shown in filing of the appeal and as such the appellant may not be permitted to insist for interim order, that too once we are giving short date to final hearing of the appeal “, said the NCLAT in its order of January 4.
NCLAT admitted Google’s appeal on January 4 (Wednesday) and directed that 10 per cent of the penalty be deposited. No other interim order has been passed by NCLAT. A final hearing on the matter was fixed for April 3.
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Further, the Court rejected Google’s argument of Android’s benefit and influence on consumers, stating that the question is about Google’s anti-competitive practices and abuse of dominance.
Google’s appeal
Google had appealed before NCLAT against the CCI ruling in the Android case and sought an immediate and complete stay on order.
In its appeal, Google cited Startups testimonials raising ‘concerns’ over the CCI ruling. Google had challenged the findings of CCI as “patently erroneous” and ignoring “the reality of competition in India, Google’s procompetitive business model, and the benefits created for all stakeholders.”
CCI’s order had been described as “fraught with substantive, analytical, and procedural errors including inter alia ignoring exculpatory evidence, statements from Indian OEMs and developers”.
Interestingly, Google had accused the CCI’s investigation arm, i.e. the Office of the Director General (DG) of copy-pasting the conclusions from decisions of foreign authorities without any application of mind.
On October 25 last year, CCI pulled up Google for abusing its dominant position regarding its Google Play policy and imposed a penalty of ₹937 crore on the tech giant.
The Competition law provides a sixty-day window for appeal before NCLAT against any order of the Competition watchdog.
